Purple Heart recipient remains vigilant on deployment

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
  • 15th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --  A deployed Hickam AFB explosive ordnance disposal technician now carries a medal on his chest and metal inside his body after responding to an explosive rocket that was pointed to launch toward Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq, Jan. 3. 

Senior Airman Robert Wester, 15th Civil Engineer Squadron, was awarded a Purple Heart in a ceremony there Feb. 4 for suffering injuries when metal fragments hit his leg and back, lodging two inches from his spine. He and fellow EOD Staff Sgt. Brandon Pfannenstiel were in the process of analyzing the recovered rocket when it detonated. 

"I was dazed and wasn't expecting it," said Airman Wester, a Knoxville, Tenn., native. "The blast ... clouded my judgment, so I didn't know if it was indirect fire or an [improvised explosive device]. I ran 10 feet before I fell to the ground." 

There is now a crater more than a foot deep in downtown Kirkuk, and a one-inch piece of metal lodged inside Airman Wester's chest, near his lungs. 

"We're very fortunate," said Airman Wester, who was partially shielded from the blast by a pressure washer and grill in the area. He and his coworkers both downrange and here at Hickam AFB recognize that the incident could easily have been deadly. 

"I am extremely proud of Airman Wester and the Airmen we have, not only in the Air Force, but also in EOD, because we are asking them to do things we [more senior enlisted members] were never asked to do as Airmen," said Senior Master Sgt. Michael Pitts, 15 CES/EOD flight chief. "We're very fortunate to have him alive. It's a complete cat-and-mouse game, and this time we won." 

Sergeant Pitts and Airman Wester were deployed together to Balad, Iraq, in 2007. As close colleagues in the EOD career field, Sergeant Pitts knows just how much Airman Wester has risked staying in the career field. Airman Wester's good friend from the EOD flight here, Senior Airman William Newman, was killed in an IED incident downrange in July 2007. 

"Hickam AFB and this flight have given a lot for this war," said Sergeant Pitts, a 20-year veteran of the career field. "For him to reenlist and volunteer to continuously deploy, risking his life for people he doesn't know, is incredible, and it takes a special person to do that. I can't thank him enough. We are lucky to have him here at Hickam and lucky he's coming home." 

Still deployed, Airman Wester frequently walks past the blast site. 

"Every time ... I am thankful, and more than anything I am more vigilant," he said. 

Airman Wester is scheduled to return to Hickam in April. 

Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski, 506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs, contributed to this article.