Wounded warrior recieves multiple awards

Published July 19, 2012
By Nick DeCicco
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Master Sgt. James Davis, currently being treated at David Grant USAF Medical Center for combat injuries, received the Jolly Green Association Rescue of the Year and Breeze Eastern Flight Engineer of the Year awards July 17 during a 60th Air Mobility Wing commander's call at the theater at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

On a predawn mission to retrieve two Army pilots whose helicopter crashed April 23 in an Afghanistan valley known as a Taliban stronghold, bullets from the gun of a Taliban fighter ripped through the floor of the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter.

The rounds punctured a trail leading away from Davis, who seconds earlier slid from turning off the hoist to drop two parajumpers into a small area on a mountainside into his seat at .50-caliber machine guns.

His right leg stuck out as he moved across the aircraft. That's where the bullet struck him, entering the flight engineer's right calf, with the exit wound near his tibia.

"Seconds earlier, I would have been dead," said Davis. "They were in a blind spot. They were directly below. There's nothing you can do."

Due to Davis' wound, the Pave Hawk made way to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. En route, the sergeant and Staff Sgt. William Gonzalez, a gunner deployed to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, put a tourniquet on the wounded warrior just above the exit wound.

"I was fading out," said Davis, who said his field of vision was narrowing and blurring due to the loss of blood.

As soon as Gonzalez tightened the tourniquet and locked it into place, Davis said his vision began to return. The gunner then wrapped the wound in gauze to absorb blood.

Gonzalez learned to apply tourniquets at a Tactical Combat Casualty Care training in Lake Tahoe by members of David Grant USAF Medical Center, said Lt. Col. Dustin Zierold, 60th Surgical Operations Squadron, in an email.

Within 10 minutes, the crew returned to Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram AB. Several members helped carry the wounded flight engineer to the emergency room.

Once there, Davis faced a battery of tests, including a computed tomography scan and other X-rays. Work to save his limb was done in the trauma unit of the Bagram hospital, where Maj. (Dr.) Michael Howard, orthopedic hand surgeon, deployed from the 60th MSGS at Travis, did several of his initial washouts and stabilizations downrange, said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Jeffrey Bui, 60th Medical Surgical Operations Squadron.

"It's pretty gratifying to know we've got great people down range," said Bui. "It definitely is a team effort, no doubt."

Davis suffered nerve and vascular injuries as well as bone and soft tissue, said Bui.

Davis' next stop was Landstuhl Air Base, Germany, where he received a fasciotomy to relieve pressure from swelling in his leg, as well as two other surgeries.

Days later, he returned stateside, making a one-night stop at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., before getting on a C-17 Globemaster III en route for DGMC. DGMC was selected for its capabilities and its location being convenient to his home station.

Since arriving at Travis, Davis has had several procedures to help the swelling improve and wash the wound. A skin graft was performed May 16 by Maj. (Dr.) Christopher Gold, 60th MSGS plastic surgeon. The skin graft was successful.

Seeing such a string of individuals with Travis ties is fairly uncommon, said Bui.

"Usually, you're seen by multiple providers from different hospitals throughout the Air Force," he said. "It brings home that it's a pretty small world for us."

Davis' family joined him from Kadena Air Base, Japan, during the second week of his stay. He has since moved out of the hospital and into the Travis Fisher House, a facility where loved ones can stay while wounded warriors receive treatment.

Soon after his family joined him, every member of the Davis family was a patient at DGMC due to various illnesses.

"The nurses and the docs took great care of him," said Katharine Davis, the flight engineer's wife.

Davis said Tracy Black, the Air Force Recovery Care coordinator for California has been invaluable to his recovery.

"The hospital staff here has been amazing," said Davis. "They have great bed-side manner. I never had to worry about a thing."

The long-term prognosis for Davis is hazy, with the patient himself admitting doctors are unwilling to make any definitive predictions.

"These types of injuries involve a long recovery," said Bui. "For him, it will be a mixture of time and rehab to see what type of function will return."

For being injured in the line of duty, Davis received a Purple Heart.

Yet when he thinks back to that morning in the valley, he says he was "just doing my job and got hurt."

Behind his round glasses, his eyes begin to well up as he talks about how being wounded took him out of action.

"It really tore me up," he said. "I didn't care about the leg. I really wanted to help my guys. That was the hardest thing -- that I couldn't complete the mission."

His efforts were recognized during the commander's call as Brig. Gen. Jay Flournoy, 349th AMW commander, presented Davis with his awards.

"You truly epitomize these things we do so that others may live," Flournoy said of Davis.