Iraq Veteran "All I remember is a boy in the window"

Nicholas McCallon served two tours in Iraq and he is an example of what these men and women are like. While most people are paying attention to the tragedies after Hurricane Sandy, they aren't paying much attention to the fact many of the responders are in fact combat veterans like McCallon.

They serve, risk their lives for one reason, to help. Help defend this nation and help when natural disasters hit. Help when people of other nations are in harms way and this nation says they must go. Help when their comrades are in danger. For them it isn't a matter of just "doing their duty" while in uniform, but they carry the same willingness to help throughout their lives.

Why did McCallon rush to the mangled car? Because someone needed him to.

Now the image of the dead 7 year old in the car will stay with him as he holds his own newborn son, born right after the accident. Yet too many of us never stop to think of what they go through to do what they do for us.

Iraq vet first at scene where boy died in wreck
Iraq veteran was first on the scene where a 7-year-old died in a crash
By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
November 3, 2012

Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Nicholas McCallon, 27, of Everett, with his newborn son, Nathan, was the first to respond at the scene of a fatal accident on Evergreen Way on Oct. 30. After going home from the scene, McCallon was awoken at 3:20 a.m. by his wife, telling him that it was time to head to the hospital. Nathan arrived two weeks earlier than expected.

EVERETT -- Nicholas McCallon had seen death in its most raw and indelible forms during two tours of duty in Iraq.

What the ex-soldier hadn't prepared for was the death of a child less than a mile from his Everett home.

McCallon, 27, was the first person to reach the scene of a fatal crash Tuesday night in the 7800 block of Evergreen Way. A 7-year-old Everett boy died.

McCallon, his wife and young son were headed to a friend's house for dinner when they say a black BMW zipped by them along Evergreen Way, swerving in and out of lanes.

"Nick, I don't want you to be anywhere near that car," Felicia McCallon remembers telling her husband.

Less than a minute later, they saw the car again, now reduced to crumpled metal on the rain-soaked thoroughfare.

As medics tried to help the boy, McCallon put compression on the woman's wound and tried to comfort her.

"The first words out of her mouth (were), 'All I remember is a boy in the window,' " McCallon said.

Only when he returned to his car, while his wife gave a statement to the police, did McCallon allow the magnitude of the tragedy to get to him. read more here