A difficult weekend

Saturday was busy. We did a lot. JB was called over to accident on the softball field. A woman who had sprained her ankle.

I suppose it was just the beginning of what was to come.

Sunday.

A hard day for JB -- for a lot of people here on Base.

Around midday, JB received a phone call that there had been an accident on Base. I was outside with the kids, and he started yelling, throwing on his shoes. I quickly found our new neighbor Steve and asked him to drive JB somewhere. I didn't know where. Just knew that he needed to get there in a hurry. Steve grabbed his keys and they flew down the street -- faster than I have ever seen any vehicle on Base drive.

I won't get into all the details until the investigation is complete, (you can read a preliminary press release here) but a young man was killed in a vehicle accident. JB was on the scene as the physician in charge. Another man was injured but not seriously.

I don't know how John handles things like that. Seeing someone die. I did it once on our scuba diving trip. I hope to never do it again.

He returned home a few hours later. We talked for a long time while the kids napped. He was working his way down from the adrenaline rush of the morning events. Decompressing.

We decided to head over to Arkadas park where they were having a huge Turkish festival with many visitors from off Base -- something that does not happen frequently. John didn't really want to go. He was still in shock and exhausted from the events surrounding the airmen's death but agreed to go to get the kids out of the house.

We were waiting in line to order some food when JB was suddenly pushing Abigail's stroller in my direction and yelling something about a man collapsing. He ran off. It was so crowded; I couldn't really tell what was going on. I managed to yell in that direction to ascertain whether someone spoke English. I yelled it in Turkish. Someone replied in English. I wanted to make sure JB didn't need a translator as poor as me. He didn't. There were a bunch of people who were able to translate thank goodness.

The man had been electrocuted. JB stayed on the scene until the ambulance cleared him out. He was a Turkish man taken to a Turkish hospital so we are not sure when we will get information on how he was doing, but JB was pretty sure he was going to make it.

Pray for our Base today. Security forces just lost a man a few weeks ago in an off-Base electrocution accident. A second death in such a short time is sure to be even more difficult.

And please pray for JB. He'll be fine. But seeing those things cannot be easy.

Thanks.