Sergeant receives award for heroism

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. R.J. Biermann
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  Staff Sgt. Xanadu Moldenhauer, 555th Fighter Squadron knowledge operator, was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal on May 30, 2014, during a 31st Operations Group commander's call for saving the life of Staff Sgt. Travis Brown, former 31st Munitions Squadron, armament training monitor.

On Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, Moldenhauer, Brown and others took a trip to the mountains in Tramonti di Sopra, about a 45-minute drive away. The group had planned to camp near the town's man-made lake and simply enjoy the outdoors.

According to Moldenhauer some individuals set up camp, while others played games or swam in the lake. Brown began hiking around a rocky area near the water. With one wrong step, he sent several small rocks sliding down the hill. To regain his balance, he leaned up against a large, 100-pound boulder. Before he realized what was happening, the boulder rolled onto his right arm - the sharp, rough edge of the rock slashing through his flesh, shattering his humerus and dislocating his elbow.

"I yelled for help," Brown said. "But I think [my friends] thought I was just playing around."

"We'd just [swam] to the other side and we heard him yelling," Moldenhauer said. "'I broke my arm!' he kept yelling. He was as calm as could be. [Tech Sgt.] Jordan [Hatch] sent me to get the truck; then he tried to reach Brown to help."

Unfortunately, the group had no cell phone reception and the closest route to the truck required her to swim across a small body of water, climb a steep hill and run two miles. Hatch, a former Field Training Detachment weapons instructor here, was the first to reach Brown. (Hatch has since been reassigned to Beale Air Force Base, Calif.)

When Moldenhauer returned with the truck, Hatch instructed her to apply a tourniquet with anything she could find. She ripped the string from her shorts and tied it tightly
around Brown's upper arm. Since he had lost so much blood, the tourniquet slid into his wound. With no time to waste, she had to get him into her truck and on their way.

With Moldenhauer at the wheel and Brown safely in the passenger seat, Moldenhauer sped down the mountain road.

"We came to the first bridge and the man couldn't understand us; but he saw the blood on me and realized the severity of Brown's injury," Moldenhauer said. "He told us to drive down farther."

When the two finally reached the second bridge, a local team of emergency medical technicians quickly arrived to transport Brown to an open location where the hospital's helicopter could land.

"I don't think it hit Brown until we reached the second dam," Moldenhauer said. "'Please don't let them take my arm!'" he told me.

When Brown arrived at the hospital he was quickly taken in for surgery. Eight pins, an erector set and one steel plate later, Brown woke up in the recovery room. His long journey down the road to recovery began.

Back at the accident scene, when Moldenhauer reached all her friends who were anxiously awaiting her return, everything hit her.

"I just thought, 'What just happened?'" she recalled. "I was in shock from it for a few days."

Days after his surgery, Brown's doctor told him he must find someone to help care for him while he recovered. Fortunately for him, Master Sgt. Brian Sauke, a former 555th Fighter Squadron member, and his wife, Melissa, were eavesdropping outside Brown's door. For 40 days, the two cared for Brown.

Brown's friends and co-workers also stepped in to help with everything from delivering food to taxiing Brown to and from physical therapy appointments.

On Aug. 27, 2012, just three weeks later, Brown had his second surgery. Doctors removed two pins from his ulna, i.e. elbow bone.

"Six months, 10 days later; but who's counting ... I had the remaining six pins taken out of my arm," Brown said.

Brown was only halfway there.

On Sept. 6, 2013, more than a year after the accident, Brown had his fifth and final surgery. Back at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, doctors removed the remaining fragments of Brown's humerus. They also moved his ulna nerve so Brown could regain feeling and mobility in his middle and pinkie fingers.

Today, the scars are very much present across Brown's arm. His long road to recovery has come to an end. Not a day goes by that he doesn't remember Moldenhauer's heroic act. Without her actions, he would have likely lost his arm, changing his life forever, Brown said.

"She saved my life. It's a life-long thank you," he said.

"I'm just happy my friend still has his arm and that he didn't lose his life," Moldenhauer added.