To the rescue ... 51st SFS members save lives, property

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Candy Knight
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  "In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time." -- Mark Twain

Members of the Osan Town Patrol would have to disagree with Mark Twain's quote, because they were in the right place at the right time and provided assistance after a fire broke out in a nearby off-base restaurant the evening of May 30.

"We were doing our regular health and welfare checks, making sure our fellow servicemembers were staying safe, when we received a call from the (base's) law enforcement desk saying that there was a fire at one of the nearby restaurants," said Staff Sgt. Michael Skonetski, 51st Security Forces Squadron Town Patrol.

According to Sergeant Skonetski, he, Staff Sgt. Matt Baker and Senior Airmen Michael Burks and Corey Hall were in the immediate area and quickly responded.

"When we arrived, there was smoke everywhere," Sergeant Baker said. "So we immediately starting yelling for people to get out."

Risking their personal safety, Sergeant Baker and Sergeant Skonetski then ran inside, yelling to see if anyone was in the building and had not heard the initial warnings.
They only exited the building when the smoke began to affect their sight.

"It was after we exited the building that we learned there was still one person left inside," Sergeant Skonetski said. "We ran back into the building and that's when we heard a dog barking inside an apartment. After banging on the door, we were able to get inside, get the person, and the puppy, outside and out of harm's way."

After successfully evacuating nearby shops and ensuring the safety of other first responders, the four town patrollers established a cordon around the perimeter to keep onlookers at a safe distance, while also preventing fearful shop owners from rushing back into the burning building.

"Establishing the cordon and keeping people away from the area was the hardest part," Sergeant Baker said. "But we were able to provide crowd control and keep the area secured until the local fire department arrived to put out the fire."

While running to burning buildings is not part of their normal day-to-day duties, Airman Burke says that it does fall into town patrol's overall mission and hopefully it will help eliminate the notion that town patrol only exists to keep people from having a good time.

"Our mission is to provide force protection to all USFK members," he said. "We're not here to ruin anyone's good time, but to help you have a good time in a safe manner. Our job is keep our members from getting into situations that may damage their career."

Sergeant Skonetski added that keeping people from getting into trouble is the main reason he loves his job.

"By getting people home safely and without incident, I am doing my small part in keeping our planes in the air and keeping the Air Force mission going," he said.