This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The trip by helicopter from the tiny mud village of Yahya Kheyl to the ragtag hospital at Forward Operating Base Sharana takes just minutes.
But by the time the aircraft landed, it was too late to save Jordan Byrd, who had been shot by a sniper while on patrol with his platoon in Afghanistan.
A soldier who had been wounded by the Army medic's side was still alive, though — and combat surgeons quickly set to work.
In the middle of the all-too-familiar fight to save the wounded soldier, Army Capt. Roger Beaulieu learned that the young man whose body lay still in his trauma bay was a fellow Utahn — a medic who had been shot while tending to the other soldier's wounds.
Beaulieu looked down at Byrd's gaunt, youthful face.
"No," the captain thought. "He's too damn young."
A chaplain stepped forward and placed his hands on the fallen soldier's body. Beaulieu wept.
Under normal circumstances, the 19-year-old soldier's body would have been moved to another area to await transport to Bagram Air Base and, once there, preparation for transport back to the United States.
But for Beaulieu, commander of the Salt Lake City-based 934th Forward Surgical Team, this was not a normal circumstance.
"He was a medic. He was from Utah. This made it very personal," he said.
Beaulieu requested and received permission to care for Byrd's body in his team's trauma bay. It had been a long and difficult day, but the soldiers of the 934th took turns scrubbing down the room around their fallen comrade. Someone found an American flag and placed it over the soldier's body.
As they awaited the transport helicopter, hundreds of soldiers came through the small emergency room. Two by two, they knelt beside Byrd's body to pray.
As they did, Beaulieu ran back to his room to retrieve the Combat Medical Badge he'd been awarded during his first deployment, to Iraq, in 2003.
He placed it on the flag that draped Byrd's body.
"Now there," Beaulieu thought, "is a soldier who deserves to wear that more than me."
Meanwhile, word had come from the operating room. The second soldier was stable and would be evacuated for further care.
As the helicopter that would ferry Byrd to Bagram Air Base approached, six soldiers carried Byrd's body to a waiting ambulance, which proceeded slowly to the landing pad as soldiers lined the roads, rendering salutes. As the ambulance went past, the soldiers fell in behind. As the helicopter landed, the soldiers carefully lifted Byrd's body from the ambulance.
"There is a sidewalk that makes its way to the helicopter pad and it was lined at that moment with hundreds of soldiers on both sides — all saluting as Jordan passed," Beaulieu said.
The sun was setting as the helicopter took off. "I was so struck by this that it seemed that even God chose to give Jordan a last farewell ceremony," Beaulieu said.
The aircraft circled once over the base, turned north and disappeared into the twilight.
"He came as a hero and he left as a hero," Beaulieu said. "And I'm proud that all of us from Utah could send him back home with dignity and honor."
Fund established for Byrd's 1-month-old
The body of Jordan Byrd, who was killed Wednesday in Afghanistan, was returned to the United States on Friday morning. The soldier's remains are expected back in Utah in the next week. Funeral arrangements are pending. A fund for Byrd's son, 1-month-old Ayden, has been established at the Dugway Federal Credit Union, Building 5326 Valdez Circle, Dugway, UT, 84022. For more information, e-mail dugfcu@cut.net or call 435-831-4973.