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Air Force reservist attends presidential address

  • Published
WASHINGTON --  An Air Force reservist attended President George W. Bush's final state of the union address here Jan. 28.

Senior Airman Diane Lopes represented the Air Force, sitting in the audience with the first lady and other special guests.

Airman Lopes, a security forces specialist with Air Force Reserve Command's 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., was selected to attend the address through a nomination process.

"It's a tremendous honor to have been selected to attend this," she said. "It's exciting to be able to experience history up close and personal."

Airman Lopes was injured in a rocket attack Sept. 21 while deployed to Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq.

Those who work with Airman Lopes are not surprised she was selected to represent the Air Force for the president's speech.

"We are very proud," said Col. Steve Kirkpatrick, 920th commander. "Diane's courage, sense of humor and sheer will to overcome a devastating injury have been an inspiration to all who know her. She is a great Airman and American. We are all privileged to serve alongside her."

Airman Lopes recounted the incident in Iraq.

"I can picture it like it was yesterday," she said about the attack. "I remember I started to turn, then I heard the blast on my right side. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard. All I saw were sparks and a flash. The flash went through me. I thought I was on fire."

The 'flash' she saw was a blast wave, a wall of high pressure that radiates outward at high speed from a powerful explosion. In Airman Lopes' case, the wave that passed through her contained a hail of razor-sharp shrapnel.

Though she initially felt no pain, her wounds were substantial. The massive explosion and resulting shrapnel snapped the tibia and fibula of her left leg, slashed through 80 percent of the tendons in her right wrist, collapsed one of her lungs, burned the backs of her legs, perforated her right eardrum and peppered her body with shrapnel.

She was immediately flown to Baghdad for treatment, then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and finally to Walter Reed Medical Center, where she currently is receiving out-patient therapy for her wounds. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service from Air Force Print News)