BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Two service members were killed and one seriously wounded in an ambush March 29 in southern Afghanistan. Army Sgt. Orlando Morales, 33, a native of Manati, Puerto Rico and Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Jacob L. Frazier, 24, of St. Charles, Ill., were the first combat casualties in Afghanistan since Sgt. Steven Checo of the 82nd Airborne Division was killed by hostile fire in December.

The seriously wounded soldier, who for security reasons is referred to as Tom, received care from a number of medical team members before going home to recover. Tom was shot in the right side, destroying one of his kidneys, perforating his diaphragm and puncturing his lung. Another round went through his right hand. Another round grazed his head. He was also cut over his left eye.

The Forward Surgical Team saved his life in the operating room at Kandahar Air Field. They removed his damaged organ, closed the hole in his diaphragm and lung. They operated on his hand and closed the wounds he had above his eye and on the side of his head.

Once his surgery was done, it was the job of the Critical Care Aeromedical Transport Team to move Tom to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. All the team members went in their own direction, doing their own thing, making their own decisions in Tom's best interests.

Capt. Russel Frantz, the officer in charge of aeromedical operations at Kandahar Air Field, and his crew, were responsible for putting Tom in the air evac system, coordinating his movement.

"Some people on the medical side tend to distance themselves from their patients because it helps them focus on their injuries," Frantz said, "but if it is somebody you know, somebody who is a friend of yours, it's always a little harder. I didn't know (Tom) but it still hit home because he is one of our own."

Frantz also was thinking about Tom on a different level. They are both husbands and fathers. "To me, my family is everything. I imagine his family is everything to him too. He is very fortunate to have a second chance. I don't know if he prays, but he probably should start."

Frantz only saw Tom for a few minutes when he was being moved from the back of an ambulance to the back of a plane, but he still is proud of the job he does.

"We're not here to get a medal. We're not here to get glory. We're here to do one job, take care of patients the best we can and get them from point A to point B, hopefully in the same or better condition than we got them. We don't need recognition for this."

Lt. Col. Wendy Tomczak, the senior clinical advisor in the Operation Enduring Freedom theater, was an army nurse in Vietnam and an Air Force nurse in the Gulf War.

"Tom was the first American casualty I've moved since Vietnam," Tomczak said. "It was a mixture of feelings for me. There is the officer and the nurse in me, who treated a young man that was badly hurt and that was very touch and go.

"The other part is the mom, thinking Tom is two years older than my son," she continued. "It's made for complicated feelings, looking at it from two different angles at the same time. I think if he would have been my son, I would have been so grateful that he survived the ambush and that there were skilled enough people there to help him survive. I would have been proud at the same time, proud that he elected to serve his country."

A Special Forces team from Tom's unit wanted to ride on the aircraft with him and the other two troops that were killed, said Tomczak.

"We usually don't take passengers with human remains on board, but the guys came on board and asked us to reconsider," Tomczak said with tears in her eyes. "They said they would be honored to go back with him and I couldn't tell them no."

Chief Master Sgt. Harry Martz, the charge medical technician on the air evac crew, has more than 29 years in the military. Most of his experience is in the back of an ambulance treating strangers, not in the back of an aircraft treating a comrade-in-arms.

"It's a little closer to home, a little more personal when you are treating people you work with, even if you may not know them," Martz said. "It was a little tough when they brought on the caskets, especially since the helicopter crash and the memorial service for that."

Technical Sgt. Dean Altman, an air evac crewmember, has tried to distance himself from his patients in the past but he said sometimes that is hard when they both wear a uniform and both have families.

"I think it's awesome that he is going to make it home to see his wife and kids," Altman said. "I have a family too. I can relate."

Altman was the most experienced crewmember on the C-17. He oversaw the loading of the two caskets 20 feet from Tom.

"My main thing was to not let (Tom) see what was happening, if he was awake enough to see it," Altman said. "He didn't know (two of his friends had been killed), but even if he did know, you don't want him to see the caskets. It's better that way. I didn't want (Tom) to start thinking 'why wasn't I killed? Why couldn't it have been me instead of one of my buddies?' He needed to be thinking about himself and getting better."

"I felt sad for them. I wish there was something I could do, but there isn't. I just wanted to give (the two killed) dignity on their trip home so their families could bury them, get some closure," said Altman.

Maj. Daniel Smith was Tom's Critical Care Air Transport Team doctor. He said Tom was very critical. Tom had a chest tube in, was on a ventilator to help him breath, had three IVs for fluids, an arterial line to monitor blood pressure, an orgastric tube into his stomach. Smith said he had just about every line and every tube a patient could have.

"I have a great sense of honor taking care of one of our Special Forces guys that was injured in battle. Here was a soldier wounded in battle, protecting our liberty and freedom and it gave me a great sense of pride to help him," Smith said.

"I have a lot of patriotism and pride in our country and what these guys (Special Forces) do to defend our country. It really drove home to me that this is a real ball game and that lives are at stake here to keep us free," Smith said.

Staff Sgt. Larry Minor is the youngest member of the team and was Tom's cardiopulmonary technician on his flight from Afghanistan to Germany. He monitored Tom's breathing and the drainage from the chest tube in the left side of Tom's chest.

"It feels good to actually do the job we have been training for," treating U.S. combat casualties, Minor said.

Minor's team has moved injured Afghans in the past, but this was his first combat casualty mission. "That's why I'm here, to help that one guy survive. I'm glad he is alive, that his family didn't get that phone call or that visit."

Capt. Kristen McCabe was Tom's nurse. She was strapped to the floor standing next to Tom on the take off. She is the person Tom saw the most on his flight to Germany.

"This is what I'm here for," said McCabe. "This is why I joined the military, to take care of patients. Those guys are out there taking care of America and I'm here to give them the best medical care I can.

"Tom was the first patient I've had that was true-blue, fighting for America, going out into harms way. I will always remember him, forever. "Tom asked me where his weapon was, and whenever I asked how he was doing he said, 'OK.'

McCabe said she grew possessive of their passenger. "I didn't want to give him over to the team in Germany. I knew he was in capable hands, he just wasn't in my hands, she said. "He kept telling me thank you," she said while crying. "All I did most of the time when he said thank you was give him a sip of water. He was out there taking bullets for me, and my family, and he was thanking me."

She stood or sat at his side the entire eight-hour flight, giving him his medicine, holding his hand, talking to him.

"I told him I would check up on him. It might have been me, but he looked kind of scared. It might have been my feelings I was seeing. I have never felt like I needed to stay with a patient like that before. It just amazed me, that he was saying 'thank you' to me."

Keith is a Corporal, originally from Ormond Beach, FL.  After completing a five-year enlistment in the Marine Corps in 1996, Keith spent an additional two years in the Army Reserves, including a deployment to Bosnia. In the year 2000, Keith enlisted in the Florida National Guard, and was soon deployed to Afghanistan with 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. Keith is now a student at the Universtiy of Central Florida working on his BA is Psychology. 

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