Medic heading back to Iraq after holiday break

The quiet Lake Havasu City street that Rick Titus calls home belies the adventurous lifestyle the 50-year-old flight medic has been living for most of the past nine months.

Titus has been working as a search and rescue medic for the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service in Iraq since May. A 30-day rest and relaxation leave that brought him home for the holidays ends Saturday. He has 90 days left on his contract.

"I'm looking forward to fulfilling my commitment," Titus said with a smile Tuesday.

Titus is a member of the department's Air Wing Division, which provides air support and performs medical evacuations for the Diplomatic Security Service all over Iraq.

The job has required him to participate in medical evacuations under fire on a regular basis, especially early in his service. Those situations increased in December as officials prepared to hand over parts of the country, including the fortified Green Zone, to local control.

"I don't know what it'll be like when I go back, because the whole Green Zone has been turned over to the Iraqis ... to the Iraqi Army," Titus said. "It'll be interesting."

Titus was working as a flight medic with the medical transport company Guardian Air out of Kingman when he saw the job in Iraq posted on the Internet. It was a chance to get the military experience he'd always wanted but missed out on earlier in life.

He said his family, which included wife, Beth, daughters Melissa, 21, and Korey, 18, and a 2-year-old granddaughter, was "kinda shocked" when he announced his intentions to spend a year overseas in a war zone.

"I didn't believe him at first, until he got his ticket to go to training," said Korey, a senior at Lake Havasu High School. "Part of me wanted him not to do so well in his training so he'd be sent home. But we're all really proud of him."

Titus kept up daily contact with his family via cell phone and the Internet while living in Spartan quarters — something resembling an extra-sturdy backyard shed — in the Green Zone. Though he's on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and goes on multiple flights a day, there's still a lot of down-time, particularly at night, Titus said. Maintaining correspondence with students at Havasupai Elementary School and at a school in Superior, Colo., "makes the time go faster," he said.

Titus said training he underwent before going to Iraq left him prepared for the combat-like situations he has faced. The biggest surprises on the job didn't come with much personal peril.

"I was the first search and rescue medic assigned to the main operations base in Baghdad, so I actually set up the program for the whole country. I didn't expect that much administrative stuff," Titus said.

Titus said service in Iraq has given him "an understanding of the situation. If I wouldn't have gone, I wouldn't know."

He measured his words when asked to elaborate on the perspective he's gained in Iraq.

"I don't know what I can say. The general population there is really appreciative of the Americans and the multi-national forces being there and supporting them. But there are several outside influences that are against us there," Titus said.

You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com. To read Diana Parker's blog, go to the TNH Blog Spot at www.havasunews.com/blogpages/blog.html.

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