The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila raised an American flag over Camp Korean Village, Iraq, he brought with him from Arizona.
Tuesday, Sierra Vista firefighter and emergency medical technician Chris Davila presented that flag to Fire Chief Randy Redmond as fellow firefighters looked on.
Monday was Davila’s first day back on the job with the department after being gone for nearly nine months, with seven of those months deployed as a Navy Reserve corpsman serving with a Marine unit near the Jordanian and Syrian border area in Iraq.
And, as luck would have it, on his first shift saw him responding to a blaze in Sierra Vista. “Right back to work,” he said with a laugh.
 Sierra Vista Fire Department firefighter/EMT Chris Davila presents a signed banner and an American flag to the fire department after returning home from a tour of duty to Iraq as a Navy corpsman. The American flag flew on a medevac mission with Davila over Iraq. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
But it wasn’t all laughing for Davila.
As he presented the flag and a combination American and Iraqi flag banner signed by the members of the unit he was with, Davila lost his composure for a moment, remembering that he carried the American flag inside his uniform as he medically helped evacuate his roommate in Iraq on a helicopter.
His friend was depressed and close to being suicidal, he noted, and it was as not only a friend but a combat buddy who caused Davila that moment of anguish Tuesday.
It was late last June when he packed his gear in his home to head off for additional training in North Carolina before leaving for a seven-month deployment.
Not only was he leaving his family but going away from the home he and his wife, Deyka, and sons Cody and Chase had lived in for some years.
When he came back it was to a new home, which Deyka had to move into with the help of family, friends and firefighters.
But don’t think he didn’t have a bunch of “honey-do’s” waiting for him when he returned in late March.
There was landscaping for him to do, his wife Deyka said. She took some time off Tuesday from her job on Fort Huachuca to attend the presentation.
His unit became the Camp Koran Village Shock Trauma Platoon, and fortunately, during the deployment there were no calls to treat Marines wounded by the insurgents, he said.
Not that there were no injuries, but most of them were minor, caused by accidents or sports-related activities, he said.
However, a number of local Iraqi police were wounded and had to be treated, including two who were victims of an improvised explosive device with a lot of shrapnel in them, Davila said.
And, there was the case of an insurgent who was attempting to bury an IED when it went off requiring his left leg and right hand to be amputated, the corpsman said.
That person survived, as treated at the scene of the IED attempt, stabilized at the camp and moved to a U.S. hospital in Iraq and probably now is in one of the American prisons, Davila said.
What was fortunate is the place where the Marine camp is located formerly was in a hot combat zone — Al Anbar Province, but now it is fairly quiet, Davila said.
Being close to the border of Jordan and Syria, he and other members of the medical platoon also were called upon to treat Jordanian truck drivers who convoyed supplies into Iraq.
There were a lot of diabetic problems, along with strokes and cardiac arrests, Davila said.
What is good about today’s deployments is the opportunity to keep in touch with the family, he said.
Because of the time difference, he and Deyka would talk with each other by phone, usually when she was at work.
Later this month, Davila will be promoted to petty officer first class at his Reserve unit in Tucson.
He has two more presentations to make, and they are to the students at Village Meadows and Coronado elementary schools to thank them for the cards and care packages they sent his unit.
And when school is over there will be a family vacation and then one just for him and his wife, Deyka said.
He’s hoping the American flag he gave to the chief will be displayed at the new fire station. He provided one earlier from a deployment to Kuwait in 2003, a time when he did not enter Iraq when the war began, which is on display at Station 1.
He still has a little more than four years in the Reserves, and ever the realist, that could mean another deployment sometime in the future. But for now, “I’m just excited to be back,” Davila said.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
Diane wrote on May 9, 2008 10:44 AM: