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Everyday Heroes (Updated and Bumped)

Woman stuck in slowly sinking car from r/SweatyPalms

UPDATE: Commenter Dirk on American Digest writes,

The pic is a memory hole for me. December 24 1991, Klamath falls Oregon while on patrol in 20- degree weather a car carrying a mother and her son, slide off the road on black ice, into the Geary canal, off of Lake Klamath.

Upon my arrival I dropped my gun belt, broke thru the 3 inch thick ice, and tried to save both. The son was saved, I failed to get the mother out. I returned to shore grabbed a state employees winch cable pulled it back into the canal, where I tried to attach the hook to tow the vehicle out.

I’d just learned of ice water survival for drown folk, thinking I could get her out, start her back up. No joy, I could find nothing to hook the cable to. I was freaked out, and I had failed.

My day was just getting started. As dive rescue recovered the mom, and exited the water, the back firefighter fell backwards into the water submerging himself. Is leg was pinned up hill and he could not self rescue. I watched from ten yards up the bank.

I jumped into the water, trashed my knee, where I was able to get the firefighters head above the water, so he could breath. I was running on empty, but I was not going to fail twice. The rescue line was dropped and a dozen firefighter slide down and entered the water to recover their team mate. His leg was compound fractured, and a bloody mess.

After we got him out stabilized and up the bank. I think i was In Shock from extreme cold. As they bagged the mom, and placed the firefighter in an ambulance I watched as Christmas presents popped to the surface and floated over the car. I’ll never forget the lovingly wrapped presents wrapped by the mom, for her son, who knew his mom just drown.

I got one of Oregon’s highest awards for this. I took it back and asked the State Police how in gods name to your award a man for failing?

They later put an award in my personal jacket I discovered many years later. I ripped that letter out, and destroyed it. What a fucking joke, I failed and received praise. Reminds me of what we see today, failure on all fronts, and ” Their own ” patting each other on the back telling each other just bitchen they were.

To this day I pray daily for forgiveness, for this gross failure to protect.

Dirk

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • I Am Who I Am August 22, 2020, 10:11 AM

    That was four years ago this month, during the Great Flood of 2016 in Baton Rouge. Know the place if happened. Got her and her dog, too. ‘Everyday Heroes’ and ‘Cajun Navy‘ are synonymous. This is who we are down here.

  • ghostsniper August 22, 2020, 12:18 PM

    What are the tubes? And how do you go down them?

  • Tom Hyland August 22, 2020, 1:12 PM

    But wait!! Here’s a heartwarming story! Will this woman be elected first black female mayor of Sumter, South Carolina?? Hell yes! YES WE CAN!! https://tinyurl.com/yxek7hf7

  • Dirk August 24, 2020, 9:51 AM

    The pic is a memory hole for me. December 24 1991, Klamath falls Oregon while on patrol in 20- degree weather a car carrying a mother and her son, slide off the road on black ice, into the Geary canal, off of Lake Klamath.

    Upon my arrival I dropped my gun belt, broke thru the 3 inch thick ice, and tried to save both. The son was saved, I failed to get the mother out. I returned to shore grabbed a state employees winch cable pulled it back into the canal, where I tried to attach the hook to tow the vehicle out.

    I’d just learned of ice water survival for drown folk, thinking I could get her out, start her back up. No joy, I could find nothing to hook the cable to. I was freaked out, and I had failed.

    My day was just getting started. As dive rescue recovered the mom, and exited the water, the back firefighter fell backwards into the water submerging himself. Is leg was pinned up hill and he could not self rescue. I watched from ten yards up the bank.

    I jumped into the water, trashed my knee, where I was able to get the firefighters head above the water, so he could breath. I was running on empty, but I was not going to fail twice. The rescue line was dropped and a dozen firefighter slide down and entered the water to recover their team mate. His leg was compound fractured, and a bloody mess.

    After we got him out stabilized and up the bank. I think i was In Shock from extreme cold. As they bagged the mom, and placed the firefighter in an ambulance I watched as Christmas presents popped to the surface and floated over the car. I’ll never forget the lovingly wrapped presents wrapped by the mom, for her son, who knew his mom just drown.

    I got one of Oregons highest awards for this. I took it back and asked the State Police how in gods name to your award a man for failing?

    They later put an award in my personal jacket I discovered many years later. I ripped that letter out, and destroyed it. What a fucking joke, I failed and received praise. Reminds me of what we see today, failure on all fronts, and ” Their own ” patting each other on the back telling each other just bitchen they were.

    To this day I pray daily for forgiveness, for this gross failure to protect.

    Dirk

  • t-bagsmom August 24, 2020, 11:08 AM

    Dirk,
    I know you from the site that silenced us.
    Want you to know, over a decade as a volunteer firefighter/EMT
    A few years as a paid EMT. And over a decade as a peace officer.
    It’s my opinion if you’re seeking forgiveness for the situation you described,
    you don’t need to be forgiven. I have many memories myself from the thousands of situations I’ve responded to, lots of scenes are on a loop and play out over and over again. Some I can still smell and even taste. I’m pretty sure you know what I mean, and I’m pretty sure I appreciate how you feel. I’ll leave you with this. You did your best. You put yourself in harms way that day. The outcome isn’t what you want. God calls people home and that is out of our hands. I hope you find peace eventually.

  • Anonymous August 24, 2020, 12:05 PM

    God bless you, Dirk. You will receive your reward when Jesus brings you to that mother in the next life and she thanks you for saving her son.

  • Jack Crevalle August 24, 2020, 3:36 PM

    Dirk, we should all pray daily for forgiveness, but in this particular case, you have nothing to be forgiven for. You did everything. Everything. May God bless you.
    As he will. Take comfort.

  • Auntie Analogue August 24, 2020, 3:42 PM

    My dear Dirk, you mustn’t ask forgiveness after having given your utmost. And I have a fair sense of how you feel, as my Dad was a big city fireman who came home in abysmal black moods that went on for weeks after he and his fellow firemen could not rescue people from flaming buildings, and following occasions at which he and they had to dig from burned out collapsed buildings the charred human remains, including the bodies of children, toddlers, infants.

    Ultimately, Dirk, my Dad had an expression that he and his fellow firemen came to embrace: “Don’t let it throw you.” They had another one too: “Thy will be done.”

    For the Lord’s peace to come to your soul, so shall I pray.

  • Uncle Mikey August 25, 2020, 7:27 AM

    Right now there are people like Dirk thinking “maybe I’ll be a carpenter instead.” Some veils drop and can’t be restored for a generation

  • pbird August 25, 2020, 7:51 AM

    Auntie A is right Dirk.