Honor guardian angels to the rescue - Honor Guard members perform CPR - Brief Article

Airman, August, 2001 by Tim Barela

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Base Honor Guard members here serve at more funerals than anything else. As a matter of fact, from January through May alone they served at more than 100 funerals, complete with flag foldings and 21-gun salutes.

But on March 20, four Honor Guard members weren't honoring another fallen veteran; they were saving a life instead.

Senior Airmen Chris Powers, Bobby McCorkel and Johann Alvarado, as well as Airman 1st Class Jamee Brown, were presenting colors at a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting in Shreveport, La., when the ceremony turned into a near tragedy. One of the women, 87-year-old Emma Boyd, went into cardiac arrest.

"We'd just finished folding the flag when we heard Master some-one holler, 'Call 911!'" McCorkel said.

When they looked to see where all the commotion was coming from, they saw Boyd slumped back in her chair, eyes rolled back and vomiting.

"She was also having tremors, like a seizure," Powers said.

The Honor Guard team sprung into action.

Brown ran to call 911. Alvarado cleared the area of chairs and people. Powers and McCorkel started taking Boyd's vitals.

"We checked her pulse. No pulse. We talked to her to see if she was responsive. Unresponsive. That was a scary moment," McCorkel said.

They laid Boyd down. McCorkel pushed Boyd to her side, while Powers cleared her airway of the vomit. Jacque Dodd, a Daughters of the American Revolution member and a nurse, elevated Boyd's legs and said, "Start CPR!"

"I looked up to see who was going to start CPR, and everyone was looking at me," said the 22-year-old Powers. "I thought, 'Oh my God! What if I mess up?' I was scared to death."

But that moment of self-doubt quickly disappeared as his Air Force self-aid and buddy care training, as well as a medical technician class he took while stationed in Bosnia as a security forces member, kicked in and took over.

"I cleared her mouth of some more vomit, which by this time was all over my hands and uniform," Powers said. "Then I tilted her head back. But before I could start mouth-to-mouth, she took a breath."

Frightened and confused, Boyd couldn't talk or move. Paramedics arrived and rushed her to the hospital where she underwent angioplasty surgery.

After recovering, Boyd visited Barksdale in May to thank the four Honor Guard members and present them with The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Certificate of Appreciation for "coming to the aid of a Shreveport Chapter member during a medical emergency."

"When we were all united, after Mrs. Boyd recovered, it was like one of those reunion scenes out of Rescue 9 t 1," said Powers with a bright smile. "There were a lot of hugs, thanks and good feelings. There's a special bond there."

Boyd would agree.

"I owe my life to them," she said. "If I'd been home alone when that happened, I wouldn't have survived. These boys are dear to me."

Brig. Gen. Curtis Bedke, 2nd Bomb Wing commander, also thanked the airmen for their quick thinking and for taking their training so seriously. They "kept one heart beating and made a lot of other hearts happy that day," Bedke said.

It's all part of putting on the blue uniform, according to McCorkel. "There's no way you can go out and represent the Air Force, and then watch someone lie there and die," he said. "I'm just glad Mrs. Boyd's wasn't the next funeral we did."