Turning tragedy into opportunity: Barksdale EOD tech receives Purple Heart, looks forward to training next generation

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Sarah E. Stegman
  • 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- --  One step on May 11 changed the life course of an explosive ordnance disposal technician assigned to the 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron here.

Staff Sgt. David Flowers, 28, was deployed with the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, when he was wounded by an anti-personnel mine on May 11.

"My team was tasked to go out and dispose of a weapons cache that was called in by the Afghanistan National Police," Sergeant Flowers said. "We went out to the location and found a bunch of ordnance."

After finding the large cache, Sergeant Flowers found a smaller amount of ordnance in a different location.

"I found more ordnance around the corner from the courtyard and I was trying to find a way to move them to the larger cache," he explained. "I must've walked around that landmine at least once before I stepped on it."

In the explosion Sergeant Flowers lost his right leg below the knee. The blast also completely shattered his left, yet he remained conscious and made a life-saving decision.

"After I got hit, I was up against the wall of the courtyard and knew that I couldn't fall to the left because I hadn't been there and didn't know if there was another landmine," he said. "So, I decided to fall back into the blast hole."

His actions resulted in a multiple fracture in his right arm and wrist, but set him up perfectly for his team members and a medic to apply buddy care.

"My EOD team member ran over to help me, without even taking his own life into consideration," Sergeant Flowers recalled. "There were mines all over the place, but he came up to me and applied tourniquets to both my legs before the medic arrived.

"The medic was awesome," he said. "He is an Army specialist and he had to have been no more than 20 years old. Before he got there the idea had crossed my mind that I might not make it, but once he got there I knew I was going to be OK."

Sergeant Flowers is still trying to track down the name of the Soldier, and he promises that once he finds it, the Soldier's going to be on his Christmas card list.

After being bandaged up, Sergeant Flowers was medically evacuated to Bagram for his first surgery, and then was flown to Germany where his wife, Elizabeth, met up with him before being flown to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C.

For his selfless service, actions and sacrifice, Sergeant Flowers was presented three awards -- a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a second Combat Action Medal -- by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz during a ceremony at Walter Reed June 23.

During the ceremony, General Schwartz told Sergeant Flowers and the other recipients, "Your sterling example of service resonates within us all as we take time today to remember your sacrifices. Today's ceremony directs our attention to the enormous sacrifice for answering our nation's call to serve."

For people who don't know Sergeant Flowers, it may come as a surprise that he's so optimistic after losing his leg in the explosion.

"Basically, I don't see this as a tragedy, because it's not," he said. "I'm an EOD technician... I'm on the bomb squad and this could've happened to anyone one of us. If it wouldn't've happened to me, I'd be scared it would've happened to someone else.

"It's just something that was put into my life," Sergeant Flowers said. "I'm going to handle it day-by-day. I'm thrilled to do the things I'm getting to do and I'm happy with the way my life is going. My wife feels the same way and we'll press on day-by-day."

Sergeant Flowers has been stationed at Barksdale for four years and has been in the Air Force for almost six. In that time, he had deployed once before to Kirkuk, Iraq, for six months and, more recently, got married.

He and Liz spent their first anniversary at Walter Reed.

"I am just so proud of him and how he's handling everything," Mrs. Flowers said. "He has a wonderful attitude and he is still the same old Dave."

His family rotates visiting him so he always has someone with him on a daily basis while he continues to undergo numerous surgeries on his left leg and treatment for other injuries.

"My family, of course, feels bad that this happened to me, but I tell them that we just have to press on and do this day-by-day. It's the only way we can do this," he said.

Since arriving at Walter Reed, Sergeant Flowers has had more than16 surgeries and had a second specialized surgery on his left leg June 30 to try and re-grow muscle and tissue.

"After every surgery, I know that they've done something great to help me get back as soon as possible," he said. "I'll be able to start rehab as soon as I feel well from this surgery. I hope that this time it's going to go through and do a number on my leg to get it working again."

Faced with adversity that for some seems unrealistic to overcome, Sergeant Flowers looks to the future for two things: to train the next generation of EOD technicians and to get back on the golf course.

"This isn't a career ender anymore," he said. "As long as I can get back up on my feet and learn to walk again -- which is going to be no problem -- I hope they're going to keep me in the Air Force. If I can, I'll go down to the school house at Eglin (Air Force Base, Fla.) and will try to teach."

Even if the Air Force medically retires Sergeant Flowers, he has a plan.

"If they decide to medically retire me, I can still go there to the school house in a civilian capacity and instruct. I have a lot of experiences that I can pass along to the next generation of EOD techs that are going through the school."

As for the golf course, Sergeant Flowers has a plan for that as well.

"They closed up my leg 12 days after being (at Walter Reed) and we're looking to start fitting a prosthetic in July," he said. "I have no doubt I will make it back to the golf course.

There's a swing coach that will teach me how to get my swing back when I play with a prosthetic leg."

Always the optimist, Sergeant Flowers has no regrets going to Afghanistan or being an EOD technician.

"I had been on numerous missions around Bagram since I arrived in March," he said. "Our team would go into a lot of the little villages that had big stockpiles of munitions from the Soviet-era that no one had taken care of since that time. We would go in, assess the munitions they had stockpiled and move them outside of the villages and detonate them.

"The villages were happy that we had come to dispose of the weapons, because they had kids running and playing around all the munitions. It was an amazing experience to help them dispose of munitions that could be harmful."

Sergeant Flowers remains positive and adamant about pressing ahead with the curveball he's been handed.

"This doesn't define me," Sergeant Flowers said. "It doesn't deter me from doing anything. If the Air Force will let me, I would do this again."