Posted on 08/25/2004 6:50:02 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
As their 19-ton armored Stryker tipped nose-first, then plummeted off a 30-foot cliff in Iraq, "I knew it was going to hurt -- a lot," Army Spc. Nick Vernon wrote. "That's when I grabbed Justin."
In an e-mail he sent Monday to The Daily News, the Castle Rock native was modest about his role in pulling Sgt. Justin Little of Longview to safety.
"I don't feel like I saved his life," he wrote. "We are all trained, and trained well. I did my job and everyone made it out alive."
Vernon said that the six-man Stryker crew was in the Nineveh province of Iraq near the Syrian border Wednesday night when the front wheels touched the edge of a cliff at around 10:10 p.m.
"The edge was difficult to see at night with no lights and only night vision devices," he wrote. "We paused on the edge for a moment, but before we could reverse our direction the bank gave way, the vehicle tipped vertical and fell straight down about 30 feet."
Little, the gunner, was is in the turret atop the vehicle, exposed from about the waist up.
"I caught him about mid-thigh, wrapped my arms around and just pulled him down and into the vehicle the best I could," he wrote. "You have the greatest chance of survival if you're inside rather than ejected from the vehicle. I wasn't looking up at the hatch, but I believe we cut it a little close and Justin just got inside when the nose of the vehicle impacted with the ground and rolled over."
Vernon took a blow to the head, but he shook it off and went to help his comrades. Two of the crewmen crawled out through a hatch of the vehicle, which came to a rest on its top. Little and two others were still inside.
"I found Justin and made sure he was OK," Vernon wrote. "He told me his neck hurt and he didn't know if he could move."
He told Little to lie still and checked on the others. He found a corporal buried under cables, cut him free and dragged him away from the vehicle. Then he returned to Little and asked him about his neck.
"He was awake and alert at the time, but knew he was injured," Vernon wrote.
Keeping Little's neck and back straight, Vernon eased him out of the vehicle, then placed objects on either side of his head to keep it stable. Meanwhile, a rescuer in another vehicle worked on reaching the driver through an emergency tunnel dug out of the dirt.
"The entire time, Justin was asking me to get his driver first and make sure his driver was OK," Vernon wrote. The driver was out by shortly before 11 p.m.
The medical team couldn't get a vehicle to them, he wrote.
"They left their vehicle and ran over three miles through hostile territory with all their gear and medical bags to get to us," he wrote. "It was probably another 30 to 40 minutes before the Medevac helicopters arrived. They stabilized all six of the people that had been involved, including myself, and flew us out."
Little was treated for a broken neck at a hospital in Germany, then flown to Washington, D.C. Little's family said his spinal cord was not damaged, a good sign that he will walk again.
Little's father, Jim Little of Longview, said Monday that he hopes his son will be transferred today to Madigan Army Hospital, Tacoma.
"He's in good hands -- but we want him home," he said.
Vernon hasn't been able to talk to Little since the rescue but, "I pray for him every day and hope that he makes a good recovery and that I can talk to him soon," he wrote. "If all goes well I'll be home in November and I look forward to seeing him then."
I have seen other vehicles that went over cliffs or fell down ravines in the dark. Defecation occurs to tanks, tracks and Strykers.
The Syrian border is a long way from Mosul. They are getting around. That's mobility. They could show up in Najaf tomorrow.
Nick Vernon sounds like a very good guy.
Stryker ping
Thanks for the ping!
Yeah, he does, Nearly all of them do.
"We are all trained, and trained well. I did my job and everyone made it out alive."
It must have been darker than a bag of rectums that night.
Yep. Terrain can kill you just as dead as an IED.
Yikes, 30 foot IN VEHICLE fall, and the roof gunner getting yanked back inside.
Someone is going to be stupid and ask, somewhere, about seatbelts in combat vehicles.
(If they haven't already)
Hard NOT to laugh.
But I know some touchy feely 'make me safe from myself' type is gonna suggest what you mentioned.
*wincing chuckle*
""They left their vehicle and ran over three miles through hostile territory with all their gear and medical bags to get to us," he wrote."
There are no words.
Gutsy move done without thinking about the danger.
Think that's the definition of 'bravery' if I'm not mistaken.
Wonder if they'll get recognition for it?
Wow great story.
He most certainly did.
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