Recent video footage coming out of northern Iraq shows a dramatic rescue almost too good to be true. In heart-stopping footage, former U.S. Special Forces soldier David Eubank, 56, is seen running into ISIS gunfire to rescue a little Iraqi girl from certain death.
Eubank, who is currently employed as an aid worker, was in the city of Mosul on an unbelievably hot Friday morning when he witnessed gun shots and saw dozens of bodies scattered over a street. He learned that the bodies were those of families trying to flee the violence in their own neighborhood–killed in the cross fires of ruthless ISIS snipers. He told the Los Angeles Times that he saw “lumps of rags” and then realized they were the bodies of kids who were dead.
Looking closely, he saw the unthinkable–movement among the corpses–a tiny child stumbling around the body of her mother. As the realization dawned on him that at least two children–a toddler and a little girl–were alive and in grave danger, he knew he needed to act–and quickly–if they had any chance of survival.
David Eubank’s Faith
Eubank has never shied away from helping someone in a desperate situation.
From the time Eubank was a little boy–growing up the son of Christian missionaries–he knew he wanted to serve his country as a soldier. So at age 18 he enlisted. As part of the First Special Forces Group, he ran missions in South America and Thailand, doing whatever he could to help people in distress. But then in 1992, after a decade of service, he knew he wanted “the freedom to go where God was leading.” So he attended Fuller Theological Seminary, and he met Karen–the woman who would become his wife. Together, they continued the mission to reach people in need of the love of Christ.
When a group of Burmese Christians contacted Eubank’s missionary parents asking for help, they thought of their son. In Eubank’s words–
“The Burmese said they were a warrior people, and they needed someone like that. My parents called me up and asked what I thought. I figured I could go and even if I helped only one person, at least they would be happy and I would be happy.”
With Karen and their children at his side, Eubank began traveling back and forth to Burma, eventually making the move overseas and forming the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), an aid group known for delivering humanitarian support, medicine, and supplies in places where organizations are prohibited from going. Over the past couple of years, FBR has turned its focus to the Islamic State, working in places like Syria that are ravaged by jihadists.
The humanitarian aid is a family effort. Only a mile from the gunfire, Karen home schools the couple’s three children–ranging in age from 16 to 11. “Although people would say it’s dangerous,” says Karen, the work “brings meaning.”
The Rescue
Eubank’s faith in combination with his lifelong commitment to help people in desperate situations meant that when he saw the toddler stepping around the hijab of her dead mother, he knew he had to help at all costs. U.S. and Iraqi troops, working in coordination, dropped smoke canisters to shield Eubank from the view of the snipers. Eubank moved stealthily behind an advancing tank, the steady, horrific sound of bullets pinging all around him.
In Eubank’s words, there “was shooting everywhere,” but time was ticking and the children would certainly not survive the rain of gunfire. American soldiers dropped a wall of smoke and Eubank knew it was time.
“I thought, ‘If I die doing this, my wife and kids would understand.”
Wearing a helmet and a bullet-proof vest, Eubank dashed from behind the tank and scooped up the 5-year-old girl in what might have been the longest 12 seconds of his life. Video footage shows the little girl in Eubank’s arms, her hair in pigtails with pink ribbons. His relief at making it back alive is palpable.
What the video doesn’t show is that Eubank went back for more survivors but found none. He never found the toddler and believed she did not survive the terrible scene. Shortly after the little girl’s rescue, Eubank and his family returned to the United States. But there is little doubt that it will only be a matter of time until David and Karen take the love of Christ to someone else in need.
Watch the daring rescue in the clip below.
~ Christian Patriot Daily
