Combat Gauze helps Save Life

DUBLIN — Standing tall among the fallen this nation will honor Monday are the great men and women who have paid the ultimate price in the war on terror. This month, the American casualty list in Afghanistan reached 1,000-deep.
Not included is Dublin resident Sean Clifton, who is married to Delphos native Sarah (Langhals). He is a career soldier with 16 years tucked away in his rucksack. He invested close to six years active Army before enlisting in the Ohio National Guard.

SFC Clifton is part of what he calls the best-kept secret in the military — a special forces unit of the National Guard; Co. B, 2nd Bat., 19th SF group. Clifton did two tours in the Middle East in which his duties as an intelligence specialist were to gather information on the enemy — both the Taliban and various local militia.
Clifton was in Afghanistan when critically wounded in a firefight with the Taliban on Memorial Day 2009. Various internal organs were damaged by a bullet that entered below his body armor and exited his upper right thigh. Another round shredded his left forearm and wrist. Clifton’s life hung in the balance as medics tended to him while taking fire from every direction in an eastern Afghanistan village.
“We were conducting a direct-action raid against a known Taliban commander in one of the districts in our province. It was similar to many other missions we had conducted. We were trying to get our partnered nation force, the Afghan National Police, to conduct a large part of this mission in order to prepare them to ultimately conduct missions on their own. In essence, we train with and fight with the local force,” he said.
“We had set things up for them to conduct the entire mission, which was to go into a village and raid a specific compound to capture or kill the target. So, the ANP got into the village and started the mission but it got out of hand for them. So, they called us in to help them out but really, we needed to take over and finish it for them. So, on our way into the village, they were already engaged in a firefight with the local Taliban that controlled the village. We had to do some things to secure the area before we could get into the target building,” he said.
Clifton selected a team of Afghan nationals and took control.
“I grabbed one of the ANP squads and started to clear several buildings looking for our target while some of the other guys on my team secured areas we were getting fired on from. Two of three buildings had been cleared. So, I grabbed 4 or 5 ANP fighters and led them into the third building,” he said.
“On the way into the compound, I kicked the door but it didn’t quite give. When I kicked it the second time, it opened and I was met with a wall of fire. We had thought there would be 3-5 fighters in there with the Taliban commander we were after. As it turned out, there were a couple commanders in there guarded by 22 fighters in that room. So, I walked into what we call a ‘fatal funnel.’ I was stuck in that doorway with all guns firing on me. I was hit at least 4 times; two of the shots hit my body armor — one of them center mass and the other knocked my night vision goggles off of my helmet. The other two rounds were critical. One hit me right beneath the body armor; it entered my lower left waistline and exited the upper right thigh. It punched right through my abdomen, intestines, bladder, damaged my kidney and sciatic nerve. The last round hit my left forearm and shattered it. That’s when I knew I was in bad shape because my arm just crumpled over and my rifle dropped. I was still in the doorway and I knew I had to get out of that situation,” he said.
Clifton stayed focused as adrenalin coursed through his veins.
“As I was shot, I stumbled backward by the force of the rounds. I spun around to get out of there and moved away from the building. The ANP fighters fired into the doorway to take care of the situation and continued to clear buildings. I took about 10 steps away from the building and just so happened to find one of the team’s medics. I walked up to him and said ‘I’m shot, I’m shot’ and he could see that I was holding my left arm. He applied a tourniquet to control the bleeding with my arm and wrist. At that point, that wasn’t a concern — that was a quick fix; we just had to control the bleeding. The abdominal shot was the bigger issue. He coudn’t see it and I didn’t know how bad it was but I knew I had been it below the waist. All of this was going on while we were taking fire from 360-degrees and multiple levels in this small village where all guns were drawn on us,” he said.
Chaos is handled by everyone staying focused and doing their job. The medics ministered aid to Clifton while the national police cleared buildings. Meanwhile, the commander called for a Medivac flight.
“They had me in the village for about 20 minutes or more while they worked on the entry and exit wounds — basically, they had to pack me full of gauze and combat gauze to control the bleeding and get an I.V. started. Immediately, a call went out on the radio that I had been shot. So while the medics worked on me, the commander called in the Medivac flight. Those guys were on top of us in 20 minutes and lifted me out of there. The flight surgeon and medic continued working on me while they flew me to the nearest trauma center 30 minutes away,” he said.
The damage was significant. It was “touch and go” for two days.
“Two surgical teams cut me open to close off all the bleeders. I stayed there for a couple of days; I had lost a lot of blood and wasn’t stable but once I was, they flew me to Germany. I was there for a couple more days while they continued to monitor me and control the internal bleeding. Then, I was flown to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. I was there for about three months and underwent multiple surgeries on my abdomen. There were also a lot of surgeries on my arm and wrist as they put them back together. I had to have therapy for the nerve damage due to the track of the bullet — there was a lot of work needed to reconfigure my internal organs,” he said.
“A year later, I still have several surgeries left to go on my left arm but we are at the microsurgery point. I’ve had bone transplants and there is still some tendon damage between my thumb and fingers but everything is going well. It’s just going to take time. I probably have another year of surgeries, recovery and therapy but it looks like it will get close to 95 percent recovered or better on the hand. Internally, the organs and digestive system — everything they had to take out and reconnect is fine. There are no issues there but they may have to do one more surgery to take care of some weak areas where they cut my abdomen open. Overall, I’m about 80-90 percent recovered,” he said.
Clifton anticipates another year of recovery but is getting back to normal. He is working out and running again; he’s even training to run the Columbus 10K on June 6.
As for his military career, Clifton plans to retire at the right time, having done more than enough to make his country proud.
“By the time this is all said and done, I’ll be pushing the 18-year mark or so and will medically retire when I get to a certain point in my recovery. With a couple of combat tours and some other exercises, I think that’s a pretty good career,” he concluded.
Clifton was touched by the outpouring of support from his wife’s hometown. His name appeared on many prayer lists while he was recovering.
His in-laws, Jim and Paul Langhals, appreciated it also.
“We were so grateful for the community supporting us,” Paula Langhals said. “It really meant a lot to Jim and I and Sarah, Sean and their family, also. Delphos is a great community.”