Sgt. John F. Rindt III (r), a flight medic from Roosevelt, Monmouth County, received the Combat Medical Badge for his role in saving five wounded soldiers while under enemy fire in Iraq. Within minutes of a roadside bomb exploding, Sgt. John F. Rindt III of Roosevelt, Monmouth County, flew into enemy fire and helped save five wounded soldiers.
Rindt, a flight medic assigned to the Vermont Army National Guard’s Company C 3-126 Aviation Air Ambulance in support of Operation New Dawn in Iraq, has received the Combat Medical Badge in recognition of his actions on Feb. 11.
The United States Army awards the badge to medical personnel who come under direct fire while assigned to infantry soldiers engaged in ground combat.
“My crew and I were directly engaged by the enemy as I was triaging and loading the patients,” Rindt said. “Luckily, there were no further injuries as a result.”
The five soldiers Rindt helped save were wounded when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED).
Rindt was on one of two medical evacuation helicopters deployed and escorted by Apache gunships to the injury site.
Once the medics landed, they came under enemy fire, but they started triage on the two critical and three walking-wounded soldiers. The walking-wounded patients went into the second helicopter while Rindt’s helicopter transported the critical patients to the nearest field hospital.
“During this evacuation of the wounded, they were taking sniper fire the whole time,” Rindt’s father, Jack, said.
Jack Rindt, who is the captain of the Roosevelt FirstAid Squad, said the pride that came over him when his son told him about receiving the Combat Medical Badge was indescribable.
“Then he said, ‘Dad, it’s great that I was put in for this award, but I was just doing my job,’ ” the elder Rindt said.
No other American soldiers were hurt during the incident and the five wounded soldiers are all doing well, according to Rindt. To receive the Combat Medical Badge is a great honor in the Army medical field, he said.
“I feel extremely honored to have received this award,” Rindt said. “For a medic, there is no higher.”
Rindt originally enlisted as a line ground medic with the New Jersey National Guard’s Company B 1-114 Infantry Division in Freehold.
“At the time, I was attending Norwich University completing my nursing degree,” Rindt said. “I found out about my current unit through a friend who told me they needed medics and I would be able to fly.” He trained as a flight medic and was stationed with the Vermont Army National Guard in Burlington, Vt., before deploying to Forward Operating Base Kalsu, which is just south of Baghdad, 10 months ago. He is still stationed there and communicated with Greater Media Newspapers via email for this article. He said he expects to be home in September.
Rindt has been with the same unit for about four years. As a flight medic, he attends to the sick and wounded at the point of injury and provides them with treatment en route to a hospital. He also conducts support missions for Vermont, he said.
“One major thing that makes Guard medevac units stand out is the fact that many of our medics are nurses and paramedics on the civilian side who practice every day and are very proficient,” he said.
His wife, Jennifer, is also an Army medic, currently stationed at West Point, N.Y., as one of the noncommissioned officers in charge of the emergency room in Keller Army Hospital. He and his wife are both members of the Roosevelt First Aid Squad.
“I grew up in Roosevelt and went to school there,” Rindt said. “The Roosevelt community is very unique and hard to find in today’s world. I joined the first aid squad when I was 14 and have been involved ever since — well, as much as I can.”
Despite the time spent away from his wife, Rindt said he loves serving the Army as a medic.
“As an active-duty family, we really don’t know anything different, and it makes the time spent together that much better,” Rindt said. “I see my actions make a difference every day. I love the mission and my unit.”