Flight nurse relays tale of soldier's sacrifices

Jodi Michele Pritchard's story appears in the book, "Walk in My Combat Boots".

Jodi's father was in the Air Force, and she joined and trained at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. In 1968, she became a flight nurse.

Her turn came in 2003, going to Iraq as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. She boarded a C-141 military transport plane with her medical equipment and personal bag. They were flying to Bagdad; she was 23 years old. Since the airport was under attack, they flew in, dark — no lights — and had to corkscrew the plane down.

As the plane landed, Jodi hears gunfire in the distance. They begin loading patients, 10 of the 20 are stretched out on litters. She recalls thinking, "Good God, these poor things. Some of them are all shot up, some have lost limbs."

They take off and Jodi and the other medical personnel are constantly adjusting IV bags, one man's legs are held together with pins, that rattle when the plane vibrates, another soldier screams for pain killers. She checks on one soldier who is missing half his face. They fly back to Ramstein AFB in Germany. Three of the patients are expected to die; they then fly to Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland. She is told, "to keep them alive until they get there."

Also on the plane are six caskets of soldiers who had died. Upon landing, a little girl approaches and asks Jodi. "Did you bring my daddy home?"

Jodi finds out the little girl's father is one of the three who is going to die.

War is sad and unless you have experienced it, you can't understand what warriors go through.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.