RESCUE
(1995)

“Men want a battle to fight, an adventure to live,
and a beauty to rescue....”

–JohnEldredge

I sat in a web seat, engines droning, aircraft vibrating all around me, with constant activity in front of me. Rosa was strapped to a medical litter secured to brackets in the center of the C130 Hercules. She was being attended to by what seemed like every member of the medical air crew. I was tired. We took off in a steep climb; not exactly a tactical takeoff, but close. The Hercules flew us away from the nightmare we had been living for the last 30-days. Riyadh dropped away in the distance; its lights fading as we climbed. US Air Force medical personnel—in their battle dress uniforms—hovered near Rosa, ready to do whatever was necessary to make her comfortable. I leaned my head back against the fuselage, closed my eyes, and thanked God for these men and women. They were taking Rosa to a place where she could get well. She was in good hands. The hum of the engines was a comfortable reminder that we had successfully taken control.

...

In 1991, I had accepted a promotion to become the US Army Missile Command (MICOM) in-country field office chief for the newly-established Saudi Foreign Military Sales (FMS) PATRIOT Air and Missile Defense System Program. We had relocated from Cairo where I had been the Chief for the Air Defense Management Office, Office of Military Cooperation, at the American Embassy. Cairo was our great adventure; we lived there for almost three years. During Desert Shield / Desert Storm, the Saudi government signed an FMS case (country-to-country contract) through which MICOM would deliver the first of many firing batteries of PATRIOT to the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces (RSADF). Other units would ultimately be delivered under subsequent FMS cases. I directed and was responsible for all activities in-Kingdom as well as having oversight of both civilian and military staff that were part of the field office in both Riyadh andJeddah.

We lived with other US Government personnel on a very nice compound on what would have been considered—then—the outskirts of Riyadh. Within those compound walls was an American neighborhood...only better. The quality of life was exceptional. The villas (houses) were separate and large (our three-bedroom villa was probably around 4000 square feet) and had “servant quarters” for a live-in maid if desired. Amenities included swimming pools, health and fitness center, outdoor and indoor basketball courts, soccer fields, racquetball and squash courts, small supermarket, playgrounds, tennis courts, preschool, restaurants, beauty salon, coffee shops, barbeque areas, book& video libraries, and, most importantly, a Class VI store (booze). Armed Forces Radio and Television Service was satellited-in from Europe. We were supported in every way by the “deployed” US military structure. This was extensive as there was still a very large US military presence in-Kingdom. It would take a few years for the US to redeploy the massive assets they had there for Desert Storm.

...

In March 1995, Rosa woke up one morning in excruciating pain in her chest. After several hours of cycling—good-to-bad-to-good-to-bad-again—I took her to the local American medical clinic that supported us. And so began one of the most stressful journeys of our life. It turned-out that Rosa had experienced a “spontaneous pneumothorax”; a collapsed lung. For something as serious as this, the local US support facility could not handle it; so, we had to rely on the Saudi Ministry of Defense hospital for care. And that was our entrance to the abyss. The area of the hospital Rosa ultimately ended up in was the best money could buy; rooms with marble floors, superior facilities, 1st class appearances throughout. But unfortunately, the staff’s medical skill-level was several decades behind Western medicine. They had 1st class facilities, but their staff was neit