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Soldiers find baby on patrol

A U.S. Army patrol from the 4th Infantry Division rescued an abandoned Iraqi infant from the side of the road near Logistical Support Area Anaconda last month. Staff Sgt. Donald White was leading his patrol from Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry
Division, on June 9 when they came across a box on the roadside. White said he initially thought it to be an improvised explosive device until he heard crying coming from the box. White looked for wires protruding from the box and made sure it was not booby trapped.

“I ran as fast as I could, snatched the box off the ground and kept on running,” he said. “Thankfully nothing blew up.” The child’s skin was literally hanging off and they could see it was massively dehydrated and malnourished. Spc. John Sullivan, healthcare specialist, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Bn., 29th FA, evaluated the child and told Smith they needed to get him to a hospital right away. Unit members jumped into the trucks and drove as fast as they could.

As the convoy drove as fast as it could to Balad Air Base hospital, Sullivan turned the air conditioning
vents in the baby’s direction so the air would cool the infant. Sullivan said he was nervous because
he never had to professionally treat a sick child before. “[He] did not cry at all in the vehicle, but his eyes rolled in the back of his head, and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, he is starting to die on me.’”

The hospital staff was already waiting for the Pacesetter patrol when the vehicles pulled up. The Air Force medical staff treated the child by putting a feeding tube into him to replenish lost fluids. The infant eventually regained its strength and was in stable enough
condition to be released to the care of the Iraqi hospital in Balad. White credits the success of the rescue to the members of his Blue Delta patrol, not just himself and Sullivan. The baby was reunited with its mother on June 19. The mother of the child told Iraqi police she left the child in her daughter’s care. The daughter was carrying the infant on the road near LSA Anaconda when she was chased by wild dogs and left the baby so she could run faster, according to reports given to Capt. Lance Awbrey, commander, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery.