Friday, March 3, 2006 10:33 PM CST
Daughter of local man lauded for heroics in Iraq
By Krista Lewin, Staff Writer
MATTOON --Mark Trueblood was not surprised when he learned of his daughter Charity’s heroic actions while serving in Iraq.
“She is a real go-getter,” said Trueblood of Mattoon. “She has very little fear. You want your kids to have fear so they don’t get hurt, but she is fearless and very independent.”
While serving in Iraq in December, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Charity, along with three other women in her convoy, made a split-second decision one night that saved their lives and the lives of two civilians who had been injured in a fire fight, according to an Army-Air Force news release this week.
While on a normal convoy to Camp Speicher from Balad Air Base, Trueblood and her team members encountered tracers upon entering an area that was under attack. Before they could get out of the area, two civilian truck drivers in the convoy were shot, the military reported.
“We got up to where the men were and halted the convoy,” Charity Trueblood said. “We saw that one man had been hit in the shoulder and had a clean entry wound and clean exit wound. While trying to provide security, the truck caught fire. We tried to put it out, to no avail. So from there on out, I performed combat life saving skills by applying pressure to the wound.“
That night represents one of the worst memories of her deployment, but ironically, it is one of her best memories as well, Trueblood told the Army-Air Force.
“I’m glad that he was OK,” Trueblood said. “When we were reunited and I got to meet him officially and see how he was doing -- that was a very good day for me.
“He’s still in Iraq, actually in Balad, and doing fine.“
As a result of this incident and being deployed together, Trueblood and her three fellow teammates have formed a sisterhood that develops, she says, “when you eat, sleep and work together 24-7.”
It is a sisterhood that will last well into her trip home, back to the 341st Logistics Readiness Squadron, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Great Falls, Montana, the Army Air Force reports.
Trueblood returned from Iraq to the United States right before her 21st birthday celebrated Feb. 14. Being stationed in Montana allows her the opportunity to be a “tomboy,” said Mark Trueblood. She enjoys hunting and driving her pickup truck around, said Trueblood.
The incident occurred during her second tour of duty. In the summer of 2004, she spent three months in Iraq and didn’t want to leave, Mark Trueblood said. When the opportunity came for a second tour, Trueblood said Charity didn’t hesitate.
In June 2005, she went to Texas to train for six weeks. She left for Kuwait in August and then it was on to Iraq.
Although Trueblood is proud of his daughter, it is difficult to watch the television news and learn of soldiers getting hurt or killed. He worries that he will receive a call or visit from the military with bad news.
But Trueblood knows his daughter is proud of what she is doing and she praises the people she works with -- both civilians and the enlistees.
“It’s such an awesome thing for these 20- to 25-year-old kids knowing that they are protecting people’s lives,” Trueblood said. “Few people get a chance to do this. And this is a volunteer service. Everybody is in on their own free will. It is not like people are drafted and forced to serve.”
Charity Trueblood graduated from Cowden-Herrick High School and enlisted in the Air Force before she was 18.
Trueblood said his daughter is a typical 21-year-old, often changing her career plans and goals in life.
“It changes from one day to the next,” he said. “One day she said she is planning a military career but then it changes and she thinks about becoming a trauma nurse. This experience in Iraq was rewarding to her because she got to help somebody and then see them recover.”
Contact Krista Lewin at klewin@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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Fxiccxypxc wrote on May 10, 2007 11:31 AM: