Young medic put to test in Afghanistan

Imagine getting shot at on an exposed ridge line by a barrage of machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades, and then running through such fire to save a buddy hit by a rocket blast.

Medic Joseph “LJ” Brown, 23, of Austin TX, didn’t know what he was in for on Feb. 28th when Third Platoon of Able Co. 2-503 Infantry of the 173rd Airborne, helicoptered onto a mountain top in Kunar Province of Eastern Afghanistan. Their goal was to meet with key village leaders. But the soldiers knew the village was probably an unfriendly place, where Taliban fighters regularly passed through into the Korengal, a valley notorious for firefights.

After walking almost five hours along the ridge line, carrying 70 pound packs, armor and weapons in spitting rain, shots rang down on them. It was the kind of complex attack, Specialist Brown dreaded. “Here we have mountains and valleys, and you don’t know who’s looking down on you... In Iraq, it was desert so if there was an accident, you knew what was around you, and you usually had time to prepare yourself mentally.”

A hail of bullets cut into trees above them and pinged off rocks as the platoon returned fire and ran for cover. A minute later Brown heard a yell that someone had been hit. Then it all became a blur. As the platoon medic, his training took over. He ran 20 meters down the ridge and saw Spc. Steven Dellinger with blood running down his face and shrapnel and gun shot wounds in his right arm and leg. “I’d never seen anything like that,” Brown said.

The young medic dragged Dellinger out of the line of fire and began strapping velcro and plastic tourniquets on his right leg and arm. As bullets still cut into the trees above him, he was joined by Staff Sgt. Josh Swilley and Staff Sgt. Brandon Casanova who helped Brown move Dellinger behind rock coverage.

Several other 3rd Platoon soldiers were also hit by shrapnel, but kept firing, as five of the platoon attempted to load their wounded buddy onto a field liter but were afraid that because of the steep and rocky terrain, they might drop him.

Sgt. First Class De La Garza radioed for a Medivac helicopter to bring a hoist. Brown and Casanova, the second medic on the scene, began patching Dellinger’s wounds with gauze so as not to move the tourniquets in flight, while making sure he didn’t go into shock. “Delligner was conscious the whole way through,” Brown said, and still making the sarcastic comments he is known for.

“When we heard the helicopters it was the best feeling of my life,” Brown said. Spc. Dellinger was loaded on to the chopper and zipped to immediate care in Asadabad. Brown called him at the Combat Support Hospital at Bagram Air Field the next day. “He said he didn’t have the words to thank me.”

“I always wanted to help people. When I joined the Army, in the back of my mind I wanted to go to war. Now I don’t wish it on my worst enemy, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” Brown said, “We’re one big family over here.”

Still, going through an experience like that has after effects. “Nineteen days later, when I hear loud noises, it still jars me,” Brown said. “They say it will go away. I don’t remember a lot of it... I’ve been shot at before, but until I saw him laying there,” he pauses, “I hadn’t seen anything like that.”

“This time I had no time to think. That’s the Army training, how to work under stress and exhaustion. All my guys who helped me had been trained as Combat Life Savers, and knew how to apply tourniquets.”

Usually when they take fire, Doc Brown, as he’s called, says he knows to duck for cover. As a senior medic in Iraq told him, “You have to be the most selfish guy in the platoon.” If the medic gets hit, who’s going to treat the other wounded?

“Some guys say I’m lazy for it,” Brown says. “After the attack, I asked, Do you guys still think I’m lazy?” They said, “No, we love you.”

Brown’s parents, Rena and Joseph, have resided in Austin for the last five years. His father, Col. Joseph Brown Sr. moved to Austin after retiring from 25 years of service in the Army, during which he served in the initial Iraq invasion.

[All photos courtesy of Spc. LJ Brown]