Airman remembers day she lost four friends

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Anna Fitzhorn
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) --  In the blink of an eye, lives were lost, children became motherless and fatherless, and others were forever scarred when a drunk driver ended four people’s lives and critically injured another in a head-on collision eight years ago.

Four Airmen and another Airman’s spouse were returning from a noncommissioned officer academy graduation banquet at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on July 11, 1997, where they were supporting a colleague graduating from the course. Just after midnight and only five minutes from home, their vehicle was hit head-on by a drunk driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel in an 18-wheeler.

Tech. Sgt. Terry Jennings, Staff Sgt. Kevin Sullivan and Senior Airman Angela Fralick, all from the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron readiness flight, were killed almost instantly in the crash.

Hiroko Jackson, a mother of two, who had gone along to watch her husband, Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Jackson, graduate, was also killed.

The driver of the truck was found to have far exceeded the legal blood-alcohol level limit and sustained only a broken leg in the crash. The driver received two years in prison for the deaths.

As the only survivor, Master Sgt. Theresa Hall, now first sergeant for the 18th Maintenance Operations Squadron here, said she still remembers the tragic day as if it were yesterday.

“I was sitting in the backseat of the vehicle behind the front passenger. Everyone was asleep except for me and Terry, who was driving,” she said. “Terry and I saw the truck headed right for us, and in an instant, it was all over.

“I never lost consciousness during the incident,” she said. “After the crash, I couldn’t move, but I knew that everyone else in the car was dead.”

Sergeant Hall sustained a broken arm, finger, collarbone, broken femurs as well as several ribs in the accident. She had internal lacerations to her kidney, intestines and spleen, spent more than nine hours in surgery and had to be put on a ventilator.

After more than a month and a half in intensive care, and another two months in the hospital, she was moved to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. She spent more than a year recuperating with extensive therapy.

“It was very painful,” she said. “I had to relearn how to walk, and it took me more than a year to fully recover.”

Physical trauma was not the only obstacle Sergeant Hall faced.

She said she struggled with feelings of guilt that she had lived while the others had not.

“It took me more than two years to come out of my shell,” she said. "I couldn’t drive or even be in a car without being scared to death.

“It was a very difficult time for my entire family," she said. "However, our faith got us through it."

She had a 3-month-old daughter at the time of the accident. Since Sergeant Hall had to be away from home for so long in the hospital, she said her daughter did not know her.

"When you have a child who you love so dearly who thinks of you as a stranger -- it hurts," Sergeant Hall said.

Although Sergeant Hall and the other victims were the only people directly involved in the accident, they were not the only ones affected by the tragedy.

Families and friends of the victims, as well as the squadron and base community, were all affected, and more than 1,200 people attended their memorial service.

Eight years after the accident, sitting on Sergeant Hall’s desk is a photo taken the day of the crash of all the victims together. Next to it is a photo of the wreckage.

”That’s how I get my story across,” she said. “When Airmen come in my office and see this picture, it gives me a chance to tell my story.”

Although April has been chosen as Alcohol Awareness Month, Sergeant Hall said Airmen should treat every month as if it were the same.

"If you drink, don't drive," Sergeant Hall said. "Please hand over your keys to someone, call a cab or a friend, because drinking and driving is like playing Russian roulette with your life and the lives of others -- here one minute -- gone the next.

"I should know," she said.