"When you get a lot of adrenaline going, you just get up and keep fighting.”

Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2008
S.C. Guard Helmet saves soldier’s life
But firefight leads to death of man’s leader, friend
By CHUCK CRUMBO - ccrumbo@thestate.com
CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan — Even though it now is useless, Spc. Riddick Hiott III has become attached to his combat helmet.

A chunk of flying shrapnel made a deep gouge on the front of the helmet, just above the right eye.

“It saved my life,” the S.C. National Guardsman said, showing his helmet to a visitor.

Hiott, a Walterboro member of the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team, got the battlefield souvenir during an Oct. 30 firefight in Kandahar Province. During that firefight, Hiott was the gunner on a Humvee that insurgent fighters ambushed.

Staff Sgt. James David Bullard, 28, a guardsman from Marion, died in the ambush.

Hiott and Bullard, members of a police mentoring team, were part of a convoy escorting Afghan officers to a command post.

Three armored Humvees and two pickups were in the convoy. The soldiers knew there could be a firefight, said the 25-year-old Hiott, who had been with the team since July.

“We had been in a pretty good number of TICs,” Hiott said, using Army lingo for troops in contact, “so you get used to being shot at. You kind of expect it and know what to look for.”

Reports also indicated the route to the command post could be laced with land mines or bombs buried in the sandy roadway or along the shoulder.

At one point, the route became so “soft,” or sandy, that Bullard and two other soldiers got out of their Humvees and walked ahead of the convoy, checking for mines and bombs, Hiott said.

Suddenly, gunfire erupted.

‘OUR LEADER ... OUR FRIEND’

Humvee gunner Hiott started firing to protect Bullard and the other soldiers as they tried to get back to the Humvees.

“As Sgt. Bullard was coming back to my Humvee, he told me I was doing a good job,” Hiott said. “That was the last thing he said to me.”

Just then, a rocket-propelled grenade struck Bullard, who had reached Hiott’s Humvee.

The blast killed Bullard and sent shrapnel in all directions.

One chunk hit Hiott in the head.

The blow knocked him unconscious for about 30 seconds, Hiott said. “I got back up on the gun. When you get a lot of adrenaline going, you just get up and keep fighting.”

A gunner in another Humvee also momentarily was knocked out, Hiott said.
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This is how traumatic brain injury happens. This South Carolina soldier told more in that one quote than a volume of books could say.

"When you get a lot of adrenaline going, you just get up and keep fighting.”