Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Joshua Allmaras | Airman 1st Class Royal D. Fry checks electrical components on a piece of aerospace...... read more read more
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“I look around the corner and there’s a girl on the floor in a pool of blood,” said Airman 1st Class Royal D. Fry, an aerospace ground equipment mechanic assigned to the 124th Maintenance Squadron at Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho. “I had a towel in my backpack because I always carry a towel in case of a situation like this. I always like to be prepared for anything.”
A lot of events in Fry’s life lead up to Aug. 4, 2017, the day he found a woman laying in a pool of blood while on vacation in Osaka, Japan. Fry has been a member of the Idaho Air National Guard since May 2015. Wearing the uniform and enlisting is something he wanted to do growing up.
“Ever since I was little, I wanted to join the military, but I didn’t want to leave Idaho,” said Fry. “I kind of gave up on enlisting until I heard about the guard. There I could serve my country, but not leave home.”
The desires to serve and do something mechanical lead him to the AGE shop.
“I have always been mechanically inclined,” said Fry. “I heard about AGE and thought it would be a really fun job from the get go and when I saw the shop I said, ‘that’s where I want to be.’”
Fry decided to take some time off from work and go on vacation with a childhood friend. This trip would lead to an event he will never forget.
“We were staying in Kyoto, Japan which is about 15 minutes from Osaka, Japan,” said Fry. “We decided to go down and check out what the city had to offer and had heard that there was a good river walk style restaurant in Dōtonbori.”
Traveling in a foreign country can be confusing.
“We went to Dōtonbori and got to the subway,” said Fry. “The subways in Japan are crowded and confusing. We got lost, but happened upon this map of the railroad and we were looking for our train.”
This is when the vacation would take a drastic turn.
“We heard screaming, but at first it sounded like a little kid screaming,” said Fry. “It was muffled and seemed far away. We didn’t pay any mind to it and kept looking at the map, but we kept hearing the screaming.”
Fry’s desire to help and serve was being tugged at.
“Two Japanese men pounded on a door and I vaguely could understand what they were saying, one word was open,” said Fry. “I turned and looked around the corner of the map and I see the door is open. I walk over and hear a lady pedestrian scream. I start to walk into the room and there’s a guy in the fetal position on the ground with two guys holding him down and the guy on the ground is bleeding from his face.”
This is when Fry knows he really needs to help.
“I go and look at him on the ground and then look up at the guy holding him,” said Fry. “He points at the corner of the room.”
Knowing that there must be something near the corner Fry left the man pinned by the other two men.
“I look around the corner and there’s a girl on the floor in a pool of blood,” said Fry. “I had a towel in my backpack because I always carry a towel in case of a situation like this. I always like to be prepared for anything.”
Fry took action to help someone he didn’t even know.
“I set my bag down next to her and I noticed there was a large bread knife sticking out from her shirt,” said Fry. “At first I thought she got stabbed in the arm, but there was no blood.”
He continued to look for a wound and finally found the source of all the blood.
“I started checking her head,” said Fry. “I parted her hair and saw about a four inch gash in the back of her head where she had been stabbed. I grabbed my towel and kind of wrapped her head with it because I didn’t know if I was going to find any more cuts on her head. I leaned her back on my lap and the knife fell to the ground.”
“I motioned to her to see if she had any more cuts, but she only put up one finger. I talked with her to help calm her down and to keep her calm until the police arrived.”
What seemed like a long time was only about five minutes.
“The police came in and took over for me,” said Fry. “The paramedics came in after that.”
Fry knows that his military experience helped him.
“In my past I’ve dealt with similar situations and the military training in first aid helped too,” said Fry.
Like most hero’s he is humble about it, even though the chief of Sonezaki police station tried get Fry to an awards and recognition event the day before he left Japan. Eventually the chief was able to give Fry the recognition he deserved by mailing the award to him.
“I just did what anyone really should do, just helped someone out in the bad situation,” said Fry.
| Date Taken: | 11.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.14.2017 10:16 |
| Story ID: | 255277 |
| Location: | BOISE, ID, US |
| Web Views: | 977 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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