Alabama transportation company honored for heroic rescue
By Norman Arnold
Alabama National Guard
Tom Borland (front left), driver of the Guard charter bus, joined several members of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., who visited Guard members in Aliceville recently. Coming from the Shreveport church were: (second from front left to right) Dr. Greg Hunt, pastor; Mrs. Greg Hunt; John Odom, chairmen of the Board of Deacons; Ronney J. Webb, minister of Family and Missions; and Deacons Pete Moncrief and Jim Roberts. Webb was a passenger on the bus and was injured in the wreck. (Photo by Lt. Col. Cynthia Bacchus, Alabama National Guard)
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hi-res photoALICEVILLE, Ala., (8/21/09) -- During their August drill, members of the Alabama Army National Guard’s Detachment 1 of the 2101st Transportation Company based here had a group of grateful visitors from Louisiana.
About 10 members from Shreveport’s First Baptist Church came to thank the 47 unit members for their actions after a church bus accident on July 12 near Meridian, Miss. The wreck involved 17 teenagers and six adults from the church.
“We came here, because we just wanted to express our appreciation to some extraordinary people, who did some extraordinary things,” said. Dr. Greg Hunt, the church's senior pastor. “We believe it was truly a miracle that they were traveling on the same highway with our bus.”
Members of Detachment 1 were traveling on a charter bus behind the church bus. They stopped to provide emergency first aid and other support to the accident victims. Some unit members directed traffic, while others began triage actions on injured persons.
It was soon discovered two teenagers were still trapped under the bus. The Guard members surrounded three sides of the bus and lifted the 30-passenger bus enough for the youngsters to be freed.
“They used their military experience and did their duty," Hunt said. "We are grateful to them beyond words and will be their friends forever.”
Alabama State Rep. Alan Harper of Aliceville read a State of Alabama proclamation he had co-sponsored with State Sen. Phil Poole of Moundville during the recent special session.
Maj. Gen. Joe Harkey, commander of the 167th Theater Sustainment Command in Birmingham, took part in the program and presented Army Achievement Medals and other awards to unit members.
Sgt. Angela Oliver of Tuscaloosa, who is assigned as a truck driver in the Aliceville unit, but works as a nurse as a civilian put her full-time skills to work at the accident scene.
"It was “just instinctive that I started doing triage on the victims,” she said.
Sgt. Greg Thomas was among a group of 2101st members, who visited First Baptist Church in Shreveport about three weeks after the accident. “We got the see the kids up close and cleaned up," he said. "That meant a whole to all of us.”
Thomas also said he and his fellow Guard members do not know how they picked up the bus. “We never questioned it, we just knew it had to be done,” he said.
This is not the last time the members of Detachment 1 will be honored.
On Aug. 28, Gov. Bob Riley will present Alabama Commendation Medals to the unit members in a ceremony at the state capitol.
The 2101st headquarters is in Demopolis with detachments in Aliceville and Butler. The units will mobilize in January 2010 to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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