Vista Jail Nurse Responded to Fatal Military Crash

Vista Detention Facility Supervising Nurse Arnold Fajayan sprang into action to help Marines injured in a military helicopter crash.

Supervising nurse Arnold Fajayan, assigned to the Vista Detention Facility, was celebrating his daughter’s graduation from the University of Hawaii with a planned family picnic on the beach on May 17 -- when he suddenly witnessed a nearby military helicopter crash.

Fajayan started working for the County 14 months ago, after retiring from the U.S. Navy as a registered nurse attached to the Marine Corps while on deployments.

On that day, he recalled seeing the Marine Osprey helicopters doing touch down exercises on a nearby base and then one helicopter went up but came back down again at a tilt.

“Eventually, it started to plummet and that’s when I saw the smoke, the debris and parts of the propeller fly up in the air,” he said. “That’s when I started running over to the crash site.”

Fajayan said he reached a fenced area and was met by some airmen who had responded. He told them he was a retired Navy nurse and they told him to climb over the fence. Other responding lifeguards and airmen had already pulled out three or four Marines, and he immediately began tending to one. The helicopter Marine unit was assigned to Camp Pendleton and its troops were training in Hawaii before deploying to Afghanistan.

The young Marine Fajayan assisted would eventually perish from his injuries, one of two Marines killed in the crash, but in that moment Fajayan thought it was possible he might recover if he could get him to a hospital quickly. The Marine, who had celebrated his 21st birthday only days prior, was breathing a little easier after Fajayan inserted a nasal airway, but Fajayan was still concerned about the head injury he’d suffered.

A surgeon and active duty Air Force major who had also responded offered up his vehicle to take the injured to the hospital and Fajayan got his patient loaded into the vehicle and rode with him to the hospital, where he later died.

“It was an honor to be in that place at that moment and to be able to provide assistance to that young Marine,” Fajayan said.

Fajayan said the moment was intense and brought a lot of his memories of serving in Afghanistan to the forefront. 

“As I approached the crash site, I felt the heat and smelled the smoke and the debris, the dirt and dust still flying up in the air so I got that sense of entering a battle-type environment,” he said. “It was emotional and physical.

 “Your focus is on helping the injured and the commitment to just go help without taking into regard safety for your own,” he said. “Once I got there and saw the injuries, it brought back the type of injuries that I’ve seen in Afghanistan from IEDs and gunshot wounds.”

Fajayan said in the moment, that emotion is set aside, but it does settle in afterward. It caused him to reflect back on his military career and the trauma he’s witnessed. Yet ultimately, he felt honored not only to have helped the Marine last May, but also to have been a member of the military and to be able to help injured troops and civilians. His supervisor says the actions are one more example of what she sees regularly on the job.

"Arnold's willingness to help is evidenced every day at work.  The fact that he responded to someone in need while on vacation, does not surprise me in the least. He is a real asset to Medical Services Division and I am personally very proud of him," said Nancy Booth, Sheriff's Detention's Director of Nursing.