USARAK Civilian Saves A Life

  • Published
  • By Sachel Harris
  • U.S. Army Alaska Public Affairs
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska --  Civilians who serve in the Department of Defense perform important work worldwide with active duty and reserve component mili¬tary members to protect the United States and its interests.

Much of their work is done behind the scenes on the homefront, but for one U.S. Army Alaska civilian, his dedication to the Army mission took him halfway around the world.

Daniel Staicer, a facility operations spe¬cialist at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, recently deployed to the Philippines in support of Balikatan 2016, an annual bilat¬eral exercise between Philippine and U.S. military forces that focuses on partnership, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities, Philippine capability develop-ment and military modernization.

While there, he met, befriended and worked closely with Philippine Army Sgt. Jehsie Ariola, a local national and noncom¬missioned officer in charge of the Fort Magsaysay fire department.

"I met Sgt. Ariola with my boss Antonio Granillo when we got there," Staicer said. "Because it's the dry season over there and we had to deal with a lot of fires, he put the fires out for us as we supported Soldiers on the range."
It was through that chance meeting that Staicer's deployment took a rather unex¬pected turn.

"About a week after we got there, I found out Jehsie's wife needed an emergency blood transfusion," Staicer explained. "The local blood bank was out of her blood type and the odds of her surviving without it were 50/50."
Without hesitation, Staicer offered to donate his blood that day.

"It was an easy decision," Staicer said. "She needed blood, I had the right blood type, and it only took an hour of my time. It was no big deal."

But it was a big deal.

Because of his selfless act, Ariola's wife, survived. She is healthy and able to care for her husband and their three children.

"I'm convinced his single act of kindness and genuine concern for the well-being of this young lady saved her life," said Granillo, USARAK supervisory facility operations specialist.

"Here stateside, we take everything for granted and think we have everything we need at the blood bank," Staicer said. "Other countries don't have that, so when they said they needed blood donors with my blood type, it wasn't something I had to think about."

Since then, both Staicer and Granillo have stayed in contact with the Ariola fam¬ily, and were even named godparents of their youngest child - though there may be a disagreement over who is the god¬mother.
"Oh, Tony is definitely the godmother," Staicer jokingly said.

Overall, Staicer believes this deployment was unlike any other.
"I served in the Army for 22 years and retired from the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry, here. I've been to Bosnia, Iraq and other places, but deploying to the Philippines and working with the host nation taught me a lot," he said.

"I wasn't expecting for this situation to happen - but it was something I will never forget," he said.