BAGHDAD—Pittsburgh native Staff Sgt. Charles Hubbard recently assisted in rescuing five injured Soldiers from a partially-submerged Humvee after it rolled into a canal southwest of Baghdad.
Hubbard is a scout section leader with B Troop, 150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, 30th Brigade Combat Team, West Virginia Army National Guard, based out of Red House, W. Va.
Hubbard's patrol was traveling along an Iraqi road when oncoming traffic caused one of the unit's Humvees to roll upside down into the canal.
"When he saw his friends hurt and injured in the overturned vehicle, without regards to his safety he jumped on top of the vehicle," said Sgt. 1st Class James Wilson, acting platoon leader, about Hubbard's leap from the canal bank to the upside down Humvee. "It must have been about four feet. He just took over, without any fear."
Hubbard helped get the Soldiers out of the vehicle, check their injuries and call in medical evacuation helicopter to take them to an Army hospital for treatment.
Helicopter evacuation cut the injured Soldiers' travel time to the Army hospital from one and half hours to less than 20 minutes. Three of the Soldiers were returned to duty that day and two others were kept overnight before being returned to the unit.
This wasn't the first time that Hubbard has worked with injured people.
"I used to work EMS for three years," said Hubbard about his time as an emergency medical technician. "So, I'm used to dealing with injured people, it's not a new phenomenon."
He worked as an EMT in Wheeling, W. Va., and as a volunteer EMT in Paden City, W. Va.
Once the injured Soldiers were on their way to the hospital, Hubbard and the remaining Soldiers assisted in the vehicle's recovery from the canal and its return to Forward Operating Base Stryker.
This is the second combat deployment for the 10-year National Guard veteran. His father and mother are Army Master Sgt. Russ Green and retired Master Sgt. Laura Green, of Harker Heights, Texas.
His brother, Sgt. Richard Hubbard, is serving with the Army in Afghanistan.
Hubbard is a 1999 graduate of Magnolia High School in New Martinsville, W. Va., and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marshall University of Huntington, W. Va., and a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.