Va. Firefighter Recalls Miraculous Rescue in Nepal

Ed's Note: Jonah Thompson, the Pennsylvania Field Operations Coordinator for Team Rubicon, a veteran-founded volunteer disaster response organization, will present "Mobile Disaster Medical Teams: Experiences from the Philippines and Nepal" at this year's World Trauma Symposium, scheduled for September 16 in Las Vegas, NV, in conjunction with EMS World Expo. Click here for more information.

July 28--The country needed a miracle. So did Robert Schoenberger, a seasoned member of Virginia's Task Force 1 who had come to Nepal in the hope of saving lives.

It was April 30, five days after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake crumbled buildings, flattened villages and triggered avalanches.

The death toll was rising. The hope of finding survivors was fading.

For years, Schoenberger had been ready to leave his home and family in Spotsylvania County at a moment's notice. He had responded to Gulf Coast hurricanes and earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. He had seen death and devastation on an unfathomable scale.

Solace, such as it was, came in saving a life--the feeling of purpose fulfilled.

Now days into their mission, Schoenberger and his urban search and rescue teammates had yet to find a survivor.

Thankfully, that was about to change.

'All I wanted to do'

Nearly three months have passed since that day hope was restored across Nepal. Schoenberger has settled back into a regular routine with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, which sponsors Task Force 1. The 39-year-old Ohio native is back to doing yard work at his home in the Chancellor area, to spending time with his wife, Lora, and their six children.

It is his family, he says, that makes it possible for him to leave on short notice, to be gone for long stretches, to fulfill a dream he's had since childhood.

The Schoenbergers have taught their children that by stepping up when their father is gone, they are helping fulfill his mission of saving lives.

They have taken it to heart, Lora Schoenberger said. "Our motto is 'Each day is one day closer to him coming home.'"

And the longer he was gone, the sweeter the reunion would be.

They would cling to that during Schoenberger's 21-day deployment to Nepal--his lengthiest to date. Just as the team had been readying to leave, a second earthquake hit the country May 12. They went back to work.

When he did make it back home, he wasn't here long before he left again, this time for a training mission in Mongolia.

The son of a pastor and teacher, Schoenberger fancied becoming a firefighter like many boys he grew up with. Then in April 1995, he watched with the rest of the world the images beamed back from the Oklahoma City bombing. The attack would claim 168, including 18 children.

"When I saw that, I said, 'That's it.' That's all I wanted to do," he said.

Schoenberger was 18.

It would take seven years to land a job with Fairfax Fire and Rescue. Along the way, he became a paramedic, drove ambulances for a private company and worked as a Maryland state trooper. In the latter role, he was often third or fourth on scene, and it was unsatisfying, he said.

"I had to be 10 feet tall and bulletproof. It's not who I was. I just wanted to ride in a red fire truck. I wanted to be a first responder."

After years of rejections, Schoenberger decided to try again to become a professional firefighter after the birth of his first child, daughter Alayna, in 2002.

Within months, he was responding to calls on fire trucks in Fairfax.

Five years later, he would join Task Force 1 as a medical specialist.

A new perspective

His first deployments as a member of the specialized search and rescue team were stateside, in response to two Gulf Coast hurricanes in late summer 2008.

Then, in January 2010, there was Haiti, the benchmark disaster to which all others would be compared.

At least 100,000 died in the magnitude-7.0 earthquake. Never before had Schoenberger witnessed such wide-scale death. Nor had he been part of a rescue mission quite so perilous or grim: the 20-hour extraction of a woman who'd survived the quake while those around her had not.

It was during that mission he paused for a moment to consider this: Everything he'd worked for and trained for and dreamed of over the last decade had brought him here.

He returned home with the sounds and smells and images of Haiti forever seared into his memory. He also took with him a newfound perspective he would lean on in the rescue missions that followed, as well as in his own life at home.

Four years ago, the Schoenbergers' youngest daughter, Talysa, underwent heart surgery at just 3 weeks old.

At one point, her heart failed, and Schoenberger believed they'd lost her.

But doctors managed to stabilize the infant. "The next morning, she was like a different kid."

Talysa has since been diagnosed with Williams syndrome, a development disorder that can be marked by heart problems.

Schoenberger describes himself as a Type-A personality, but his experiences have taught him what's important.

"I enjoy life. I enjoy work," he said. But "I don't let work control me."

His faith, Schoenberger said, sustains him. He recognizes that there is only so much he has control over, whether at home or in some ravaged part of the world.

The rest, he believes, is in God's hands.

A miraculous rescue

The earthquake in Nepal had long been predicted by scientists.

So when the news alert first flashed across the cellphones of Schoenberger and his Task Force 1 colleagues early on the morning of April 25, they were not surprised.

"It's here," they said to one another.

His bag was already packed, sitting in wait for the next disaster.

Kathmandu still shuddered with aftershocks when the team of 70 landed. They would aid local officials in their search and rescue efforts.

Schoenberger went right to work, using listening devices, cameras and dogs to try to find those trapped unseen. As a medic, he also served as a kind of personal doctor to his colleagues from Virginia.

When they came across a body--and for awhile, that's all they discovered--they marked it and moved on.

Hours passed. Then days. On April 30, optimism had reached a low point.

And then, a 15-year-old boy was found entombed but still alive after five days.

The Nepalese military began the rescue efforts. Schoenberger would aid a colleague on the front, filling IV bags, handing over equipment, readying an ambulance for the miraculous moment when the boy at least emerged.

Word traveled fast through the wrecked streets of Kathmandu.

When the six-hour extraction came to an end, and the boy was whisked away to a field hospital, thousands cheered and chanted.

Schoenberger stood in the midst of it, mission accomplished.

Kristin Davis: 540/374-5417

kdavis@freelancestar.com

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