MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- One of the survivors of the terrorist attack on a busload of Airmen at the Frankfurt Airport in 2011 spoke to Maxwell junior enlisted service members April 25 at the 2018 Junior Enlisted Leadership Symposium here.
Technical Sgt. Trevor Brewer, a Wounded Warrior Program Ambassador and security forces flight chief at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, told the group the story from his perspective and about how he has been coping with being a part of such a traumatic event.
“In late December of 2010, I found out I was deploying to Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, to be an intel liaison between the convoy commanders and the defense force commanders,” said Brewer, who at this time had just been a staff sergeant for seven months. “In January of 2011, I attended pre-deployment training, also known as Creek Defender, at Baumholder, Germany. In February of 2011, I attended force protection intelligence training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, to learn how to do my intelligence job, and on March 2, 2011, my life changed forever.”
On that day, Brewer, at the time stationed at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, and fellow Airmen preparing to deploy, transited from London’s Heathrow Airport to Germany’s Frankfurt Airport. From there, they boarded a bus that was to take them to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, for their flight to Kandahar on the following day.
While on the bus at Frankfurt Airport, Brewer recalled one of his Airmen, Senior Airmen Nicholas Alden, getting off the bus to smoke before they departed.
“Suddenly, I hear a faint ‘pop’ outside the bus,” he said, “I hear footsteps at the front of the bus, and I look up expecting to see Senior Airmen Alden, but it’s not Senior Airmen Alden. A man got on our bus wearing a gray hoodie, with the hood over his head and long black hair. He raised his right arm up toward the bus driver, and I could see a pistol in his hand. He yelled, ‘Allah Akbar!’ and pulled the trigger, killing our bus driver instantly.”
He recalled thinking to himself that this can’t be real, it’s got to be an exercise and someone is testing him. Not having a way to get out, he put his head down and waited to die.
From this position, he said all he could hear was more yelling from the man as more gunshots followed. He compared the pungent smell in the air to a gun range right after weapons have fired.
“Eventually, after seven or eight shots, the firing had stopped,” he said. “I thought the individual was gone, but I looked up and he was standing right in front of me. He had his pistol pointed at the Airmen in front of me and saw that I was looking at him. With pure hatred in his eyes, he turned his attention to me. He put the pistol to my head, yelled, ‘Allah Akbar!’ and pulled the trigger, but the gun went ‘click.’”
Anticipating the gun to fire, the man pulled the trigger again, and again without success. Brewer realized that the man’s firearm had malfunctioned and immediately stood up, causing the man to turn and run. Brewer attempt to pursue him, but slipped.
“I later found out that the reason why I fell was that there was so much blood on the ground from my Airmen that it was like a skating rink,” Brewer said.
Eventually managing to make it off of the bus, Brewer encountered the gunman once again, this time standing in the middle of the airport with a knife in his hand.
He recalled German police officers surrounding the man, not knowing what had just happened.
With the help of a translator, Brewer was able to get assistance for the wounded on the bus.
Two Airmen were injured during the attack and two were killed: Alden and Airman 1st Class Zachary Cuddeback.
Brewer said that following the attack, he suffered from an inability to sleep, hypervigilance, flashbacks, nightmares, as well as survivors guilt, which he still suffers from today.
“I always thought to myself, ‘Why me? Why did this happen to me? Why was it the two Airmen that died and not myself?’” said Brewer. “Airman Alden had a wife and children and Airman Cuddeback had a family.”
When he eventually went back to work, he told his supervisor that he knew something was not right with himself, and his supervisor immediately took him to mental health.
“That counseling helped me a lot,” he said. “I don’t know what state of mind I would have been in if I had not sought out counseling right away.”
Now that he is back on duty, Brewer said that he is thankful for mental health and the Wounded Warrior Program for helping him cope, having participated in four Air Force Wounded Warrior events.
“I literally owe my life to this program,” said Brewer.
In closing, Brewer challenged the group of young Airmen, telling them to take their training seriously, to train their Airmen well and to treat every day like it’s their last, as well as not taking themselves too seriously.
“I treat every day like it’s my last since March 2, 2011,” he said.