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| News > Former SFS Airman aids injured S.C. officer, named Citizen of Year |
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Officer Wes Foster, right, with the Charleston Police Department thanks former Staff Sgt. Jeffery Aldana following a recognition and awards ceremony for saving his life. Courtesy photo/JIM MOSSMAN
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Former SFS Airman aids injured S.C. officer, named Citizen of Year
Posted 2/8/2013 Updated 2/8/2013
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by Jenny Gordon
Robins Public Affairs
2/8/2013 - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- A former Robins Security Forces Airman was honored as the Charleston Police Department's Citizen of the Year during an awards ceremony Feb. 1.
Jeffery Aldana - who was a staff sergeant at the time - and his family had been vacationing in Folly Beach in early 2012, and while driving back to Charleston one night on a stretch of road, witnessed an officer being hit by a vehicle as he was directing traffic from an earlier accident.
Aldana, 28, immediately responded, jumping out of his car to assist the officer until local emergency personnel arrived.
"It's one of those unfortunate circumstances ... I really didn't even think; as soon as I saw what happened, I just ran," recalled Aldana, who recently separated from the Air Force after 10 years of service in security forces. "We'd been looking to him for direction and saw that an SUV was not stopping and hit him.
"He flew pretty far," Aldana added. "I remember thinking 'Oh God, I hope he's OK.' The impact sounded like an actual vehicle hitting another vehicle. That's how hard he was hit."
Aldana found Wes Foster - a veteran law enforcement officer who joined the Charleston Police Department just six months earlier - unconscious. Using the skills he learned in the Air Force, he performed self-aid and buddy care by speaking to him to try to get him to regain consciousness. He stabilized his neck, attempted to remove some of the officer's gear, and reassured the father of two that he was going to be OK.
Once local EMS arrived, Aldana directed traffic until other officers arrived.
Aldana deployed less than a week later without knowing the condition of the officer. It was Aldana's wife, Michelle, who reached out to the police department a few weeks later, much to the organization's relief since they didn't know the name of the person who assisted at the scene.
Foster, a 41-year-old husband and father of two, was later told by accident scene investigators that he landed about 60 feet from where he was hit.
"The doctors said they didn't know what (Aldana) did, but whatever it was kept me from having permanent brain damage," he said.
After being transported to a nearby trauma center, doctors diagnosed a fractured skull and orbital, a broken left hand, and two broken bones in his right leg. His right knee required extensive reconstructive surgery.
As a result, he was out of work for the next four months and released for light duty work in the summer. Foster was able to return to full duty in December.
"I have no doubt I owe a lot of what Jeff did to my recovery," said Foster.
Upon meeting Aldana and his family last week during the awards ceremony, he said as the two families' children played together that it was nice to finally meet face to face.
"It worked out really well," said Foster. "I don't know how to explain it, but it was like talking to someone I'd known forever."
Aldana, currently a full-time student at Macon State pursuing an information technology degree, was amazed at how well Foster had bounced back.
"It was so nice to see him; he looked great!" Aldana said.
Potentially losing a friend and fellow officer is never a situation anyone wants to deal with, said a member of the Charleston department.
"There's no worse call a police commander can get than the one from dispatch saying they think you've lost one," said Lt. Rusty Myers, Charleston PD's Team Three commander. "I will never forget what Aldana did to keep me from losing one of mine."
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