A Texan’s quick action saves tough Afghan boy
By LISA FALKENBERG
2008 Houston Chronicle
Two thoughts pulsed through Bryan Mikus’ mind as he assessed the screaming,
bloodied 10-year-old boy curled in the fetal position in the Afghan clinic.
First he cursed the land mines. Then he cursed fate. “Not a kid, man,
anything but a kid.”
What the 35-year-old civilian paramedic from Humble did next won’t earn him
any medals. As a medic and team leader for a security contractor, the Army
reservist and former Marine won’t be eligible for military commendations.
But his actions helped save the life of one little herdsman, who was chasing
an errant goat when the animal tripped an old Soviet land mine that had
waited more than two decades to unleash its blast of shrapnel.
The events, described to me by Mikus and others who were there, happened
weeks ago near the village of Shindand, in Farah province in Western
Afghanistan. Mikus’ company, London-based ArmorGroup, provides security for
contractors converting an abandoned Soviet base into a military training
center for Afghans.
Mikus, a self-described “computer nerd” raised in Boerne, used to fix trader
computers at Enron and was a server administrator at Reliant while working
as an emergency medical technician on the side. He decided to build on his
EMT credentials a couple years ago at Texas A&M and “reinvented” himself as
a medic. (more…)
