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Pomp and Dire Circumstances
It’s not something you would expect to do your senior year—readying for high school graduation at the same time you’re rehabbing from a stroke. So 18-year-old Sylvia Aldridge of Jackson understands when people say: “You’re too young to have this happen.”
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Methodist Employee Receives One of the Highest Military Honors Given to a Civilian
By Susan Christensen
Health and Research News Service
Brad Kennedy, a certified prosthetist at Methodist Orthotics and Prosthetics in Flowood, received one of the highest military honors given to a civilian when he was awarded the Mississippi Magnolia Cross Medal.
The 30-year-old corporal for the all-volunteer Mississippi State Guard was recognized for rescuing a Gulf Coast man who suffered a severe asthma attack in the midst of Hurricane Katrina.
Kennedy is a member of the State Guard’s Hattiesburg-based 402nd Military Police Battalion, which was sent to the Gulf Coast to augment forces from the National Guard’s 112th Military Police Battalion. He was assigned to an attachment that waited out Hurricane Katrina at the Moss Point High School shelter.
As an above-the-knee amputee who uses a high-tech artificial leg, Kennedy knew the risks of driving in search of an inhaler for the man. If floodwaters swamped his truck, his leg’s expensive electronics would surely be short-circuited.
But Kennedy said waiting for help wasn’t an option. “Some EMTs from Florida who were at the shelter felt like the man was going to die if he didn’t get medical attention,” Kennedy said. So he hurried the asthma patient, an EMT and a local resident into his four-wheel drive, Ford F-250 truck, and they made a run for higher ground.
As the group headed toward what might be dangerously deep waters, Kennedy’s mind wasn’t on his vulnerabilities. “The individual that we were helping came first,” he said. “My truck and leg could be replaced. The person couldn’t.”
When his truck stalled, Kennedy and the EMT helped the others wade to safety through chest-deep waters. Then he went house to house and located an inhaler. “The man took about four hits and got his breathing back under control,” Kennedy said.
After finding a boat to ferry everyone back to the shelter, Kennedy quietly returned to his duties—despite being hobbled by his ruined left leg.
First Sergeant Clint Williams sent him home two days later to have his leg repaired. “It’s one of the hardest things I had to do,” Williams said. “I was proud that he had the guts to go out and try something like that. He has my respect totally as a soldier and a human being.”
Kennedy said the car accident that cost him half his left leg at age 17 ended his dream of becoming a Marine. So he’s proud to be a part of the Mississippi State Guard—a unit that serves as a defensive force for the state during times of emergency.
He’s also happy to have found a way to support the troops in Iraq. Lately he has been using his vacation time to visit Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he helps soldiers injured in the war adjust to their prostheses. “I’m doing what I can to do my part here,” he said. “If they let me in the military a little later on, I’ll do that, too.”
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Brad Kennedy, right, receives the Mississippi Magnolia Cross Medal from Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck.
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