Recording History – Another Hero – Hospital Corpsman Juan Rubio

Juan Rubio was at the Pentagon on 9-11 and was sent to ground zero to help with the wounded that never materialized. Juan found himself in the city, staring at a wall of photographs and messages placed by distraught families. Then and there, he knew what he had to do. He volunteered to become a Marine Corpsman to serve in the fight he knew would come.

Richard S. Lowry is the author of Marines in the Garden of Eden and The Gulf War Chronicles.

On 5 December 2004, Major Dan Wittnam’s Small Craft Company went out to conduct another sweep along the Euphrates River. They ranged the Iraqi waterways in Small Unit Riverine Craft, the modern-day cousin of the Vietnam-era riverboats, powered by twin 440 hp water jet engines that could rocket the craft through the water at nearly 50 miles-per-hour. The boats were almost 40 feet long and 20,000 lbs, with a nine-inch draft. Fast and agile, they packed a powerful punch with 240G and .50 caliber machine guns, a GAU-17, 7.62mm, mini-gun and MK-19 automatic grenade launchers.

At the end of their day, Wittnam’s boats turned west to return to Camp Blue Diamond. They were only eight kilometers from their base when insurgents attacked with RPGs and heavy machine guns. RPGs whizzed across the water and one hit the side of Staff Sergeant Josh Iversen’s boat. The explosion severed the port fuel line. Then, small arms fire erupted all along the bank and the starboard engine took a round in its block. The port engine died and the starboard engine sputtered and coughed. Iversen’s boat slowed to a crawl, making the soldiers and Marines sitting ducks in the hot zone. Three soldiers on Iversen’s boat were hit in the hail of gunfire. The boat crew lit up both sides of the river, pouring thousands of machine gun rounds and 40mm grenades into the cover along the banks.

The most seriously wounded soldier had been hit in the neck and was bleeding out. Iversen called for help. Another boat pulled alongside in the midst of the firefight and Hospital Corpsman Juan Rubio jumped to Iversen’s boat to start working on the wounded. Rubio rushed to the critically-wounded soldier. The soldier was still alert. Rubio knew that if he didn’t stop the bleeding, this young man would die. He sliced into the soldier’s neck, located the damaged artery and clamped it off with an IV tube clamp.

“Doc, we need to move the people off to another boat.” Iversen told Rubio.

Rubio had been so focused on treating the wounded that he didn’t notice the bullets whizzing over his head on the crippled boat. If Rubio had learned anything in his years with the Marines, it was that when you are told to do something, you don’t ask why, you just do it. Rubio rallied the Marines around him. They lifted the wounded soldier and Rubio straddled the two boats. Rounds snapped by Rubio, standing with one foot on each boat.

“Oh my God, I cannot believe I’m doing this.” He thought as he watched the water flowing beneath him.

Marines passed the wounded soldier to Rubio who passed him to an Army medic in the second boat. The Army medic slipped and dropped the soldier on the deck and his neck started bleeding again. Rubio jumped across to the second boat and secured the clamp to stop the bleeding.

“Are you good, Doc?” The boat captain asked.

“Roger, I’m good.”

The coxswain gunned his engines. The stern sank in the water and the boat lurched forward at fifty knots, kicking up large plumes of white water. Three ambulances were waiting at the boat ramp. As they rushed to offload the most critically wounded soldier on a stretcher, one of the litter bearers panicked when he hit the water and let go of his corner. Rubio jumped into neck-deep water, grabbed the untended handle, pushed it above his head and calmly moved his patient ashore. They rushed their patient into one of the ambulances and a waiting First Class Corpsman said, “What are you doing? He’s going to die.”

Rubio felt the anger sweep through his body. He got in the guy’s face and said, “He’s alert and he knows where he’s at. Get his ass to the BAS.”

As the only corpsman for Wittnam’s boat company, Rubio made nearly every patrol along the Euphrates River during Operation Phantom Fury. He was awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his selfless contributions to the soldiers and Marines in his care. This is only one of several instances where Juan Rubio laid his life on the line. New Dawn will tell the full story of his heroism.