Reacting vs. watching: Training prepares Airmen for real-world responses

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Throughout my life, whenever I saw a tragedy or accident on the news, I was always amazed how willing Americans are to step in and help out. 

Saturday, when a woman on the New Jersey Turnpike called me a hero, I smiled smartly and internally disregarded her notion as something to be said in the heat of a moment. To me, a hero is one who freely gives their life for others - a person whose name is kept alive through the ages as their stories are immortalized in cadences and leadership repeats their quotes. To me, a hero is larger than life. 

Heroism, in my opinion, does not describe what ensued at 5:59 p.m. April 20, near Exit 10 on the turnpike. The training provided by the Air Force gave me the ability to quickly respond to a vehicle accident, while others looked on and hoped to help in some manner. 

The day started off fairly normal as I took my family on a day trip to see the Statue of Liberty and to spend the afternoon in New Jersey's Liberty State Park. However, our return trip was far from ordinary. 

While driving back to Dover, I came upon smoke rising from a tree line which flanked the turnpike. I slowed down and cautiously approached the smoke and noticed a great deal of broken glass, plastic and metal littering the far left lane. I also saw two cars stopped and the drivers standing and talking, looking at something smoking. Like the other two drivers, I pulled off the road. 

Incase there was a threat of fire, I parked about 100 yards back to help secure my family's safety. I let my family know I'd be right back and sprinted up to the accident site to see if I could assist. 

Once there, I found the damage was worse than I anticipated. I noticed a mangled guardrail and debris everywhere. A car with a crushed-in side and roof, and windows shattered from rolling, was lodged into a furrow on the side of the road. I could easily make out two adults in the front seats and a small child lying on top of broken glass on the rear seat. At this point, the other onlookers were assessing the situation, but had not acted. Not thinking, I took charge of the scene and immediately instructed one gentleman to call 911 and then tried to pry open the rear door to access the child. 

The door was damaged and I could not get it open so I leaped over the rear of the car and tried the other side. It opened and I pulled the little girl out. Luckily, she appeared to only have some minor cuts on her face.

As I was pulling the child from the car, a few more cars stopped to offer assistance. I carried the girl back over the car and handed her down safely into the arms of a woman offering to help. Next, I went back for the adults. 

The gentleman in the driver's seat was shook up quite a bit but appeared to only have lacerations on his neck. With a bit of help, he was able to walk away from the accident. However, his wife was not moving from the passenger seat and appeared to be in a great deal of pain. Assessing her situation, I noticed her leg had a compound fracture. Also, in taking a closer look at the vehicle damage, I could plainly see what I earlier thought was smoke was actually antifreeze spraying on the hot engine surfaces and there appeared to be no fire hazard in sight. 

For that reason, I decided that the woman's safety and the probability of the other onlookers being hurt by fire, explosion or smoke to be very minor. However, the possibility of further injuring the woman in extracting her from the vehicle was far more likely than her sustaining more injury remaining in the car, so I decided to stay with her and try to keep her calm until medical professionals arrived. 

Everyone was helping out at that point. The gentleman who called 911 advised me that help was on its way. He and another man were directing traffic around the accident site and my wife and many others were attending to the child - who was obviously still very shook up from the crash. 

A few minutes later, a New Jersey State Police car arrived on scene and Officer J. Doyle took charge. Once I had released the scene to him, I felt a great deal of relief and began to breathe easier, and actually felt a bit nauseous. 

Soon thereafter, another police cruiser and other emergency responders arrived, and the officers started questioning those on scene to piece the accident together. I informed Officer Doyle of all I had done and seen, provided him my name and a good contact number and started to leave as I still had a three-hour drive home. 

The woman to whom I handed the small girl stopped me, hugged me and called me a hero. At a loss for words, I smiled. 

The remainder of the drive home, the incident replayed again and again in my mind. In no way was I a hero. In fact, with 20/20 hindsight, I'd have done some things differently. Still, if there is something that allowed me to react while others looked on, it was the training the Air Force has provided and the confidence that comes with it.