What was the hardest decision you ever had to make? What factors did you consider when making this decision?

SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:29:18 -0400

In life we all have to make decisions. Some are easy to make, but others tough. I am not trying to pour salt on a wound or remove the band aid, but I am curious in how others respond to situations? And what the thought process is for them.

Response by SGT Rick Ash made Aug 13 at 2015 5:53 PM

SGT Rick Ash — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:53:20 -0400

There is no way to send my message but here goes. (When I hit ENTER my typing just disappears!) I was the night shift manager at 1/7 ADA, Tobin Wells, TX.(* miles north on War RD out of Ft. Bliss. The most sensitive piece of tracking equipment for the whole missile battery had been down 4 days so this would have been a Thursday night. 3 shifts a day for 4 days and still this tracker was down. It is a BIG decision to start pulling 100' cables loose by unscrewing the cap and wiggling them free of all 128 contact points (wires). It's a last, desperate move. So I went out to the line with my mind made up. When the crew saw me heading for the main cable they started disappearing into the desert....:-) When I pulled the cable head it almost fell straight down, someone had deliberately worked the head back and forth until half of the wires had come lose from the head. Pure sabotage. I sent a PFC back to the bay for the manual that dealt with THAT cable. With a flashlight I started soldering back the color coded wires to the correct pin with only a penlight I held in my mouth. When I say color coded by the time you get to the 100th wire you are looking at a white wire with a yellow winding stripe and the next wire is white with an orange winding stripe. The flashlight was dimming and only I knew the Colonel would be there at 0600 hrs as this issue had escalated to Condition Red. I finished soldering prayed and hooked the cable back up then threw the main power switch. When that tracking dual domed head started rising up I knew then. I had DONE IT! I had enough time to radio the Colonels adjutant and tell him the battery was UP!!

Response by 1stSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 13 at 2015 5:57 PM

1stSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:57:08 -0400

We had an Iraqi Border patrol guy who had been shot and the Bn refused a medivac, so I decided to ground evac him to t iraqi hospital. Doc (HM3) said he would die without more care than we could give him in the back of my LAV-L. I took two LAV-25's for front and rear and hauled ass through Husaba, down IED ally. We all arrived safely but then had the same thing to get back. Fastest mounted patrol I was ever on. I dont think we ever below 65 MPH. Iraqi dude lived and I spoke to him about 5 months later. I put a total of 13 Marines, 1 Navy Corpsman and about 4 million dollars worth of vehicles and gear at risk to save the life of this one man. In this case the risk was worth he reward. Iraqi got home to his wife and kid.

Response by SMSgt Bryan Raines made Aug 13 at 2015 6:16 PM

SMSgt Bryan Raines — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:16:06 -0400

My hardest decision to make was to ask the ER staff to stop doing CPR on my wife. The CPR was not working and my wife and I had already discussed that since she was ill and not likely to get well she wanted no heroic efforts to taken. She was 32years old. The hardest thing I have ever done was tell an 8 and 4 year old their mother was not coming home. It was 25 Dec 1993.