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Airmen aid elderly woman after trail fall

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jeramy Moore
  • 916th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  For four Airmen from the 916th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, a weekend hiking trip in Montana while on annual tour recently turned into an invaluable opportunity to embody the Air Force core value of service before self.

“We were on our way back from Avalanche Lake and we came upon this elderly lady who had fallen,” said Tech. Sgt. Kristopher Huffman, 916th AMDS laboratory NCO in charge.

Huffman said the woman was on the ground and unable to walk. She also complained of hip pain, nausea and cold.

“As soon as I saw her laying on the ground, I was like ‘this is literally what we do,'” said Senior Airman Joshua Moser, 916th AMDS aerospace medicine technician. “When I looked at her, I wasn’t nervous; I was confident.”

“I was adopted by my grandparents so I saw my grandmother lying there,” said Huffman. “She is 74 years old and she loves to hike, so I immediately thought of her.”

Suddenly, all of their training and preparation as aerospace medicine personnel became critically relevant.

The Airmen worked as a team to quickly assess the situation and begin to comfort and seek aid for the injured woman.

“We decided that Airman Mosier should stay with the patient and me and Airman Kreger should run for help,” said Huffman.

Huffman is a savvy runner with years of experience and although they were traveling downhill, the descent proved to have its own difficulties.

“It started raining; it was slippery and muddy and of course, other people were on these trails going down the mountain.” said Huffman.

Mosier and Staff Sgt. Gladys St. Peter, 916th AMDS health services technician, remained to monitor and provide immediate support for the injured woman.

“The trickiest part wasn’t any of the assessing, but it was keeping up friendly banter the whole time,” said Moser. “It was like three hours, and she’s in pain and sitting in an uncomfortable position, and you got to keep telling her ‘you don’t want to move or you could be dead in a minute.’”

As Airman Joshua Kreger, 916th AMDS optometry technician, and Huffman searched for park rangers at the foot of the trail, the situation at the top of the trail grew more severe.

“We could hear thunder constantly,” said Moser. “At this point, it’s like big black thunderstorm clouds brewing."

Eventually, Kreger and Huffman returned with park rangers and a litter to transport the woman off the mountain. The Airmen then led the effort to place the woman onto a wheeled litter and began the descent.

“It was a scoop litter, so we put the two sides around her and kind of clamped it together to pick her up,” said Moser.

The team carried the woman two miles to the trailhead where an ambulance was waiting for them. Even as conditions worsened, their determination never wavered.

“We’re going downhill; it started getting muddy–you got roots, you got branches, hundred foot drops right beside you,” said Kreger. “We had to be slower which means everybody was getting more drenched.”

The team eventually made it to the end of the trail and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital.

“We actually kept up with her.” said Kreger. “She got through surgery, got fixed up and recovered. She’s doing great and hopefully going down smaller mountains.”

Col. Stephen Irvin, 916th AMDS commander, was thrilled to hear that his Airmen worked so effectively together to rescue an injured civilian.

“Given the inclement weather, scarcity of resources and distance from a developed area, the efforts of these Airmen undoubtedly contributed to the successful outcome of the incident,” said Irvin.

Irvin went on to highlight the selflessness and courage of his Airmen who were involved in the rescue and said he was proud and honored to have them in the unit.

Huffman summarized the events that transpired that day saying that without their timely, decisive, and patient-centered care, she would have been at the mercy of the elements; her situation could have had a much worse outcome without the 916th reservists' intervention.