America's North Shore Journal

Company C, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion, California National Guard

Spraktes served as the flight medic for DUSTOFF 24, 7th Squadron, 17th Cavalry regiment, alongside pilots Chief Warrant Officer 4 Brandon Erdman and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Scott St. Aubin and crew chief Staff Sgt. Thomas Gifford.

On July 17, 2009, the medical evacuation crew responded in support of 3rd Platoon, Company C, 2-12th Infantry in the middle of a complex Taliban ambush in the Watapur Valley in northern Afghanistan.

Spraktes chose to be lowered to the platoon’s position under heavy, effective enemy fire from 150 meters. While on the ground, he treated and removed five injured Soldiers from the firefight, one of which had suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound to the abdomen. Spraktes also provided suppressive gunfire in support of the platoon and redistributed his own ammunition, all while under enemy gunfire.

Spraktes then refused to be hoisted out and chose to remain in the fight to later conduct a dismounted movement out of the area with the platoon in order to continue providing aid and support. It was only after DUSTOFF 24 returned and gave Spraktes a direct order to get into the aircraft that he relented and left the area.

Had it not been for Spraktes’ selfless acts of courage, valor and assumption of risk, 3rd Platoon, Company C, 2-12th Infantry would not have been able to resume the momentum of their fight. Without question, Spraktes and DUSTOFF 24 prevented the loss of Soldiers’ lives.

California National Guard
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“As far as we knew there were still troops in contact which means they were still taking enemy fire,” said Spraktes.

They were pinned down by heavy fire coming from steep cliffs above. The crew chose to fly their Black Hawk in, under fire, Spraktes was lowered to the ground and hoisted five wounded soldiers to safety one by one.

“The patient had a significant wound from a RPG blast, taking off a lot of the flesh of his upper arm. He had a lot of blood all over him,” said Spraktes.

Two others were also badly wounded.

“He was still bleeding. I had to put a second tourniquet on him and try to get a rapid set of vitals,” said Spraktes.

KGO-TV
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Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, the adjutant general of the California National Guard, pins the Silver Star Medal on Staff Sgt. Emmett Spraktes during an award ceremony June 13 at Mather Airfield in Sacramento. Spraktes was awarded the Silver Star for heroic actions during a medical evacuation mission while serving with California National Guard’s Company C, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion in Afghanistan. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Flagg

Hovering 70 feet over a battle zone, about to be lowered to the ground on a cable dangling from his helicopter, medic Staff Sgt. Emmett Spraktes drummed up the necessary courage by picturing the parents of the injured Soldiers below.

“We’re up there, and we know we can’t land and there’s a risk, but I imagine looking into the eyes of a [Soldier’s] parent and saying, ‘I can’t do this,’” Spraktes recalled. “How could I talk to the mother or father of one these boys and say, ‘I was just too afraid to go’?”

Moments later, when the cable stopped moving only partway to the ground — making Spraktes a sitting target above the battle field — it was his own children who came to mind.

“When I was hanging, I thought I would never get out of there. I was convinced this would be the end of me,” he said. “’This is all my children are going to know of me — everything we’ve had up to this time.’”

He called up to Crew Chief Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Gifford: “Tell my children I love them.”

“You love me?” came the confused response.

“Not you, you idiot!” Spraktes yelled. “My kids!” The men shared a momentary laugh amid the gunfire, and then the cable started moving again.

Spraktes reached the ground intact with explosions and gun bursts echoing all around him and went to work on the three injured patients as his Black Hawk crew flew to safety. This was only the beginning.

After tending to the most severely injured patient, Spraktes called for the Black Hawk to return to his location to pick up the injured Soldier and fly him to a nearby base. The Black Hawk delivered the patient then returned and picked up two more injured Soldiers — again leaving Spraktes behind to care for and defend the Soldiers on the ground.

“By the grace of God we were not hit,” said co-pilot Chief Warrant Officer Scott St. Aubin. “I have no idea how you miss a giant Black Hawk helicopter. It was really surreal.”

After dropping off patients for the second time, the Black Hawk returned to find that Spraktes was treating two Soldiers for dehydration. He again deferred his place on the aircraft to the injured Soldiers and sent the Black Hawk on its way, this time telling the crew he would stay on the ground and return to base on foot.

Spraktes’ crew would hear nothing of it, though, and returned to the dangerous location for a sixth time to perform yet another combat hoist extraction, finally bringing Spraktes to safety.

“I told the pilots I wasn’t leaving him,” Gifford said. “I was just doing my job and trying to get our guys out. [Medical evacuation] is a very dangerous job — there’s always somebody trying to shoot you down and stop you from what you’re trying to do.”

Spraktes was honored for his actions Sunday with the Silver Star — the third-highest award for valor given by the U.S. armed forces — and Gifford, St. Aubin and pilot Chief Warrant Officer Brandon Erdmann each received the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device. Erdmann is a member of the Wyoming National Guard. The other three awardees are members of the California National Guard’s Company C, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion.

Spraktes was the first California National Guard member to receive the Silver Star this century.

“This ceremony is about your selfless service while protecting our freedoms here at home,” said Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, the adjutant general of the California National Guard, during a ceremony at Mather Flight Facility near Sacramento. “These four Soldiers are American heroes. … I am proud to serve with you and I believe the acronym DUSTOFF truly describes your actions.”

DUSTOFF, which is synonymous with medical evacuation (medevac), stands for Dedicated Unhesitating Service To Our Fighting Forces.

“You four exemplify the very best of our military,” said Col. Mitchell Medigovich, commander of the 40th Combat Aviation Brigade, which includes Company C. “We put you in the most austere conditions, the most difficult places and ask you to perform missions that are simply daunting, and you always rise to the occasion.”

He noted that medevac helicopters — unlike all other aircraft flown by the CNG — are unarmed. The red cross on the helicopter is meant to deter fire, but the enemy often treats it as a bull’s-eye instead, Medigovich said.

“[Medevac Soldiers] do the job every day, unhesitating,” he said. “It’s a very special breed. Just the fact that you’re flying in there is testing one’s mettle.

“[This crew] is the best example of how our Soldiers react to adversity and accomplish the mission, saving the lives of our fellow patriots.”

The four awardees, however, deflected all praise, insisting they were only doing their job, doing what the Soldiers on the ground depended on them to do — doing what any other DUSTOFF crew would have done.

“We just happened to be there when the mission came up,” St. Aubin said. “Any one of the crews with us [in Afghanistan] would have done the same thing. I’d trust my life with any single one of them.”

“Medevac — you choose that unit,” he continued. “You know the danger and inherent risk. The kind of person who chooses that [job] is out here today.”

By Brandon Honig, Joint Force Headquarters Public Affairs
California National Guard