CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 4 ZACHARY BEDWELL
367th Maintenance Company
Mississippi Army National Guard
Philadelphia, Mississippi
I'll begin with this: Don't let experience, years of service with deployments and training received lull you into a false sense of security. A little about myself as we begin. I have been in the service for 36 years. I take good care of myself and choose to stay active with workouts in the gym, running and staying relevant within my MOS with as much fieldwork as possible within the maintenance community. A few years ago, however, it all almost came to an end.
In 2018, my brigade element was set to deploy to Kuwait. As we drew closer to wheels-up to cross the big pond, my battalion chose me for the advanced echelon (ADVON) to Fort Bliss, Texas. My team and I arrived, unloaded the train, staged equipment, moved it to forward areas and began maintenance operations to prepare for the main body. There were a lot of long, hot days, but we went about our business like a well-oiled machine. With morning safety briefs and pre-combat checks and inspections (PCCs/PCIs) taken care of, we moved directly into the field when the main body arrived. I spent 56 days in the field, came back on post and was then deployed on ADVON to Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
When we arrived in Kuwait, it was, as usual, "hotter than Satan's toenails," and we started the handoff immediately. Everything owned by the prior unit that we were receiving had to be inventoried, vehicles required inspecting, and assigned areas for company and battalion operations needed to be signed for, along with inspections and work orders to correct any faults found. We were also in the process of receiving our equipment from the port and setting up battalion and company work areas. When we started receiving the main body, this added to our ongoing tasks, as we would meet buses and direct our personnel to their new living areas. "On the move" would be an understatement, but by completing the business of the day, we stayed on schedule.
Now, on to the point. Many of these tasks were on short timelines. With a brigade element leaving and one arriving, there were many moving parts. Some missions or tasks received were on a short suspense, as personnel changes were occurring. One morning, we started our day with the expectation of inventorying, inspecting and signing for our five maintenance bays until lunch, then transitioning to receiving our company and helping everyone to their living areas with brief tours of Camp Buehring in the evening once everyone was settled. Everything went as planned until lunch, when the team I was a part of was additionally tasked with technically inspecting equipment that was spread across Buehring.
My team gathered at the location, received our personnel, helped them move their gear to living areas, and gathered for water and to make plans to complete the technical inspections (T/I). We decided to go in different directions, with each person assigned a different piece of equipment. As each member completed their T/I, they would collapse to the next to speed up the process, and everyone would end up at the M88 recovery vehicle I was inspecting. We all grabbed two bottles of water and away we went.
I arrived at the M88, which was in rough condition. It was a long walk in the heat, and I stopped a couple of times at water points to refill. At this point, I had finished about nine bottles of water. As I began my T/I, the temperature outside was somewhere between 115 and 120 degrees, and I was a bit apprehensive about being alone. I’ve always emphasized working as a team, but that day I broke my own rule.
During my inspection, I went into the crew compartment. I moved deck plates and was trying to locate a leak when something strange happened. Suddenly, I got really cold and immediately stopped everything. I remember thinking to myself, “It is 120 degrees outside. The temperature doesn’t shift this quickly here or anywhere else. Something is wrong!” I backed away and got out of the M88. While climbing down, I lost my footing and fell. I moved myself to the shaded side of the vehicle and drank some more water.
I knew I was in trouble because I couldn't form a thought on where to go or what to do, as I was unfamiliar with the area. I felt lost. My team arrived and took me to a tent to cool off. I was still coherent, so I drank water and sat in the cool air for a while. As a team, we thought I had just skirted becoming a heat casualty. It was close to the end of the day, and we had completed our assigned tasks, so we retreated to our living areas to rest.
That night, I had severe cramping that affected my whole body. I remember thinking, "That was close, maybe too close. This cannot happen again to me or any of my troops." The next day, and for a good while after, I had tremendous trouble. I thought, "Wow, this heat is taking a lot out of me," and on top of that, my back was constantly sore from the fall. I also had a slight limp in my right leg that I just couldn't shake. I attempted sick call several times between my work schedule and was eventually seen. After an evaluation, it was determined that I had a slipped disk from the fall. I finished the deployment, demobilized — telling the doctors about this incident — and went home.
When I got off the plane and headed to my family, they could see the limp I had in my right leg, so I told them the story as we traveled home. Several of my family members work in the medical field and began calling for appointments, as they suspected more was wrong. After a few appointments and MRIs, along with recounting the chain of events from that day, it was determined that I had suffered a stroke caused by heatstroke. The pain in my back was from the slipped disk, but the trouble with my right leg was neurological, resulting from the strokes. I began physical therapy and treatment and, fortunately, have now fully recovered.
There are so many pieces of this story that I wish I could rewrite — the parts I see now that I and others were blind to while living them. I had several lessons learned from this experience, including training to the lowest level so that the safety and well-being of all team members are first and foremost. The ability to recognize oncoming medical emergencies, not only in team members but also in yourself, is extremely important. There is time for all tasks and assignments, so schedule breaks and monitor yourself and others. Additionally, study your environment before you deploy, even if you’ve been there before. In other words, do your homework!