An Air Force sergeant from Black Forest was critically injured in Iraq last weekend after an explosive was detonated as
her convoy passed on a road in Baghdad.
Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana, 26, assigned to Peterson Air Force Base, should arrive
today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where her husband and parents will be at her bedside.
“I’m
just waiting to see her,” her husband, Mike Dana, said after flying to D.C.
Dana, who’s served in the
Air Force since 1998, volunteered for the six-month tour in Iraq. She was sent to the war about four weeks ago with her bomb-detecting
dog, a German shepherd named Rex. They helped at checkpoints and searched buildings.
The details were sketchy, but
her family was told the explosive detonated Sunday underneath her armored humvee, injuring all four people inside. Her family
initially was told her dog died in the explosion but later learned he was OK.
Dana’s injuries include a broken
pelvis, possible lung contusions and broken bones.
“The initial prognosis, which really rattled everybody, was
they didn’t think she was going to make it,” said Scott Hudock, a family friend who lives in Black Forest.
Friends
and neighbors gathered at Dana’s home Saturday to wait with her husband for updates. When the phone didn’t ring,
they couldn’t help but wonder if a chaplain would knock on the front door with the worst news.
“Mike is
a big, hunky guy, but I’ve never seen a big guy like that so hurt and upset,” Hudock’s wife, Tracy, said
Monday. “I actually packed his suitcase for him yesterday. He was beside himself, didn’t know what to pack.”
Dana, who wants to be a veterinarian, met the Hudocks through the couple’s Black Forest Animal Sanctuary, which
takes in unwanted horses and farm livestock. She’d spend about four days a week at the sanctuary.
“She’s
always been critter crazy,” Tracy Hudock said. “Before she got deployed, she would come out and ride the abused
horses.
“She’s the first person that has gotten on probably four of the horses that were unrideable when
they got there.”
Dana, who’s adopted two horses from the sanctuary, e-mailed Hudock daily from Iraq. She
last wrote just before going on the convoy in which she was injured.
She talked about writing her hometown paper in
Pennsylvania in hopes of raising money for the sanctuary. She also wrote about the most dangerous part of her job —
going on convoys.
“She’s a strong-willed person, which is probably what’s keeping her alive,”
Tracy Hudock said.
LAST E-MAIL TO FRIEND
Part of Jamie Dana’s last e-mail to her friend, Tracy
Hudock, just before the convoy explosion:
“I have to head out on a mission now — that’s the only
time I’m ever in any real danger over here. We go off base and have to interact with the public – most of them
are nice, it’s the troublemakers that make all the bombs and shoot rockets at us. The main thing I look forward to over
here is pictures. I put them up in my room to cheer me up. I don’t need anything else yet — but give it time —
I’ve got five months to go. I’ll talk to you later — tell everyone I miss them. :-) Jamie
HOW
TO HELP
Tracy Hudock and her husband are taking donations through their Black Forest Animal Sanctuary to help
Dana’s family with expenses not covered by the military and to help care for her two horses, two cats and three dogs.
Donations, which should be marked for Jamie Dana, may be made online at www.bfasfarm.com or mailed to 16750 Thompson Road,
Black Forest, CO 80908.
_______________________________________________
Wounded Airman meets doctor who saved her
life
By
1st Lt. Tracy Giles 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- More than five months, 8,000 miles and countless prayers led up
to an unlikely reunion Dec. 2.
Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana and Maj. (Dr.) Paul Morton first ‘met’ June 25 on
a hot summer day in Kirkuk, Iraq, that Major Morton described simply as chaotic. In contrast,
the two met again Dec. 2 on a cold winter day in the relative calm of the Black Forest Animal Sanctuary in Monument, Colo.
Five months ago, Dana, a former 21st Security Forces Squadron dog handler
here, hovered near the edge of death after taking the brunt of an improvised explosive device detonation from directly underneath
her Humvee seat during a convoy patrol near Kirkuk Air Base. The sergeant received the Purple Heart July 22.
Morton,
a 10th Medical Group emergency room physician stationed at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo., was one member of the twenty-person-plus
Kirkuk medical trauma team who helped save her life that day.
Morton
said Dana’s lungs were severely injured, and she had massive internal bleeding requiring 19 blood transfusions to keep
her alive.
“Our entire team thought she was going to die,” Morton said.
Dana was lifted into a Black
Hawk helicopter and evacuated to Balad Air Base, Iraq, accompanied by Morton and a team of medics.
“The helicopter ride was the scariest 45
minutes of my life and career,” Morton said. “Jamie almost died multiple times, and I remember myself vividly
praying. I’m amazed to see her alive today.”
Morton and Dana have been in touch via e-mail for the past
month, but this was the first time since Iraq they had been able to meet in person. Upon seeing each other the two embraced, and Major Morton said, “You
look a lot better than the last time we met.”
Dana doesn’t remember much from the first meeting other than
a split second of confusion and asking to see her military working dog, Rex, who was with her in the blast.
During
the helicopter flight, Morton said his team of medics almost lost her. “She had an inner strength and something deep
inside of her to stay alive that was outside of this world,” he said.
Shortly after the IED attack, word spread
quickly back to her family, friends and coworkers here. They set up a Web site dedicated to supporting Dana, took donations
and offered many prayers on her behalf.
Today, the Web site has received more than 360 heartfelt messages of encouragement
and support from family, military and civilian friends around the world.
That support remained constant throughout
her critical days at Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center, Germany, into the painful months of recovery and surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Md., and through
her homecoming here.
“Jamie’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous,” said Maj. Paul Cairney,
21st Security Forces Squadron commander. “She is very blessed to be alive.”
Dana is by no means fully recovered
but hopes remain high for her continued improvement. She walks with a cane and takes medication daily for pain. Her life has
been forever altered, but many have been inspired by her true, fighting spirit.
Her strong will is clearly evident
today—she is determined to live life to the fullest, move forward, attend veterinary school and pursue her dream of
becoming a veterinarian. She also plans to continue to volunteer, much as she did before the attack, and care for the horses
and animals of the Black Forest Animal Sanctuary.
“I love working with animals,” she said. “They
are a major part of my life, and I don’t want to give it up.”
Despite all she has been through, she says
she has no regrets. “I wanted to be a part of it, and I would go back to Iraq in a heartbeat if I could,” she said.
“I want to support
the troops and recognize the men and women who are putting their lives on the line every day and dying for our country,”
she added. “And I want to thank my family, friends and the Air Force who have all been behind me every step of the way.”
WASHINGTON - First lady Laura Bush's guests at her husband's annual address to Congress certainly were
diverse. One, in fact, wasn't even human.
Rex, a 5-year-old German shepherd, fit in with the other Iraq war veterans who were guests of Republicans
and Democrats.
Rex sniffed out bombs in Iraq. He's been the subject of congressional legislation. He's famous, and
Wednesday night he became one of Mrs. Bush's guests at the State of the Union speech.
How Rex landed such a coveted seat _ actually a spot in the aisle labeled "Rex" on the official seating
chart _ is quite a tale.
His owner, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana, awoke in a military hospital last summer badly injured by
a bomb in Iraq and crying for her bomb-sniffing dog. Someone told her Rex was dead.
Later, Dana found out that wasn't true. But it would take an act of Congress before she could take
him home to Pennsylvania.
The Air Force said it had spent $18,000 training Rex and that, by statute, he needed to finish the
remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted. Dana's congressman, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., helped
abolish that policy in an end-of-year defense bill, the White House said.
