This is why medics are revered in the military…
Carson medic recalls attack that led to her Bronze Star
LANCE BENZEL
There was no time to think, or even register fear, when a rocket-propelled grenade ripped into a Humvee and detonated in the driver’s lap.
“All I knew is: It was hot, I couldn’t see and I couldn’t breathe,” said Cpl. Helen L. Ruhl, one of four soldiers injured in the Sept. 24 blast in eastern Afghanistan.
Yet Ruhl could — and did — manage to act.
Despite her own injuries, the 24-year-old Fort Carson medic is credited with helping to save the driver’s life by stanching his bleeding and then returning fire on insurgents as her comrade was taken away for treatment.
She received a Bronze Star for valor Wednesday in a ceremony on Fort Carson. It’s the military’s fourth highest award for valor.
The driver lost a leg but may not have survived without Ruhl’s quick thinking, a top commander said.
“She’s the kind of medic I would like to have on a combat patrol,” Fort Carson Deputy Commanding General for Support Brig. Gen. James Pasquarette said after pinning Ruhl with the award.
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