Airmen, Soldiers save Iraqi teen injured by IED

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KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  On his way home from working in his family's field March 27, Rahmey Jarew didn't see the hidden improvised explosive device until it was too late. 

Staggering for home after the blast, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy had no way to know that his life would be saved by the quick, selfless actions of Soldiers and Airmen. 

"I heard and saw the explosion from my window," said Arif Muter Jarew, Rahmey's father. 

It wasn't long before his son stumbled in with shrapnel wounds riddling his knee, leg and chest. 

"I was panicked, there was blood coming from his mouth," Mr. Jarew said. "My son was dying. He had blood everywhere." 

The hospital was miles away and the desperate father didn't think his vehicle would make it. With his son in his arms, he ran out to the street to flag down passing motorists for help. 

"Then I saw a convoy of American Soldiers," he said. Mr. Jarew was a little wary of asking for help from coalition forces. But, with his dying son in his arms, he only hesitated a moment -- his son's life was at stake. 

"We saw some Iraqis waving us to stop and one was cradling a kid," said Army Pfc. Jeffrey Parson the patrol's medic. 

The Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, began treating what they thought were gunshot wounds. 

"There was blood coming from the kid's mouth and his wounds, so we treated the bleeding first," Private Parson said. 

The patrol radioed Forward Operating Base McHenry in the Hawijah district of the Ta' Mim Province. A medevac helicopter arrived a few precious minutes after receiving the call to transport Rahmey and his father to the FOB. After Rahmey's condition was stabilized, he was transported along with his father to the medical facility in Kirkuk, Iraq. 

Army and Air Force medics treated Rahmey for shrapnel wounds at the Freedom Hospital. 

"He's a very lucky boy," said Capt. Gabriel Rulewicz, an Air Force surgeon. "He'll need some surgery to remove the shrapnel, but we've stabilized him for transport." 

The Air Force surgeon credits the Rahmey's success to the quick reaction by everyone involved. "It is a perfect ending to what could have quickly resulted in the opposite," he said. 

But to one Iraqi father, this ending was more than perfect, it was more than he would have believed. 

"I did not know how caring U.S. (military members) are. I could not believe how well they treated my son and me," Mr. Jarew said. "I am so thankful to everyone who saved my son's life." 

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