2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs

Story by Sgt. Jennie Burrett

BAGHDAD—"I was probably two feet from my door of my truck when I heard gun fire and it felt like someone just cracked me in the right shoulder blade with a hammer," said Spc. Matthew Mortensen of Olathe, Kan.

The combat medic with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, was part of a presence patrol conducting a neighborhood search, Dec. 10, in an area historically known for weapons caches, rockets and mortars.

As the patrol walked the streets, a mounted element went from check point to check point providing security for them. Having reached the last check point, Staff Sgt. Manoj Prasad of Watertown, N.Y., and Mortensen dismounted to maneuver the trucks into a static security posture, when shots were fired.

"I saw a bullet hole in his shirt, and when I cut it open all I could see was blood," said Prasad. "I looked for an exit wound and couldn't find one."

Being the medic on scene, Mortensen provided first aid care to himself after he was injured until he reached the Joint Security Station Loyalty aid station. Combat medics are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield with the primary role to provide medical treatment to wounded soldiers.

"After I was shot, I had my platoon sergeant examine for a wound and he found one on my right shoulder blade," said Mortensen. "Then I jumped into the truck, threw off my kit because I couldn't reach my right side with my kit on. After I took it off, I started cleaning up some of the blood with gauze then I used the package for the gauze and created a pressure dressing over the wound just in case it penetrated my chest cavity. I didn't know what happened to the bullet so that was the only thing I was really worried about"

After the initial treatment, Mortensen was medically evacuated to another JSS. Mortensen kept his composure throughout the event and was able to provide Prasad with the proper medevac procedures for entering the JSS.

The day following the incident, Mortensen was awarded a Purple Heart and a Combat Medical badge while he was in the hospital at Victory Base Complex.

The Purple Heart is awarded to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The Combat Medical Badge is a decoration of the United States Army which was first created in January 1945. The badge is awarded to any member of the Army Medical Department, pay grade colonel or below, who are assigned or attached to a medical unit (company or smaller size) which provides medical support to a ground combat arms unit during any period in which the unit was engaged in active ground combat.

Mortensen was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation and recuperation. After spending a month back in the States, he anticipates he will return to his platoon in Iraq sometime in February.

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