GRAND LEDGE, Mich. – Always ready. Always there. This is the motto for the National Guard, and on June 19, two Soldiers encompassed this motto through and through.
U.S. Army Spc. August Chaffee, a medic for the 119th Field Artillery, Michigan National Guard, was taking a customer for a test drive from his civilian job at a car dealership when another vehicle went off the road and went down the sewage drainage ditch.
“Right off the bat, I knew something wasn’t right,” Chaffe said. “We pulled over and went to check on the driver and asked if everything was OK. I could see his skin was pale and checked his pulse and he did not have a carotid pulse.”
Chaffee pulled the driver from the vehicle and moved him to the rear of the car and started conducting chest compressions. Another car stopped and a woman said she was a respiratory therapist and used her shirt as a barrier to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitations.
After about 8 minutes of chest compressions, U.S. Army Master Sgt. William Jannausch, 177th Military Police, Michigan National Guard, was heading home when he saw someone giving chest compressions to another person and pulled over and ran back to the scene.
“I asked if they needed help, and after Chaffee finished the round of chest compressions he was on, I hopped in and checked his pulse and started giving CPR. After about 2 minutes, I checked his pulse again and his was starting to get stronger.”
A deputy from the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department arrived.
“The deputy asked if the man had been with anyone else and I told her about the man at the vehicle when I ran past,” says Jannausch. “The deputy went over and appeared to be speaking to him when she announced that he hadn’t been breathing either.”
Jannausch got up and helped the deputy remove the man from the vehicle. He started chest compressions and the first ambulance arrived. Chaffee came to assist at this time as well. They placed a nasopharyngeal airway into his left nostril and then the EMTs took over.
Chaffee has been serving for five and a half years, first as a motor transport operator and then a combat medic.
“I’m a combat medic and a licensed EMT. In this situation, it all goes back to training and recognizing what’s right and wrong and stepping up when you need to,” says Chaffee. “I have always been interested in the medical field. I went to college to be an EMT and studied nursing as well.”
“Having myself, the respiratory therapist and Master Sgt. Jannausch, stepping up and assisting with this really made the difference in saving their lives.”
Jannausch has been serving for 27 years. He has held multiple jobs, including combat engineer, medic and flight paramedic.
“Muscle memory and training take over in these kinds of situations,” says Jannausch. “... You know, if there had been a police presence, I would have continued with my day; it would have appeared to be handled, whereas, in this moment, there were few people on the scene and it’s not something I could drive past.”