GOP Rep's at-Scene Heroics: 'Felt Like I Was Back in Iraq'

An Ohio lawmaker who served as an Army surgeon in Iraq said Wednesday's shooting at a Virginia baseball field brought back battlefield images as he rushed to aid wounded Rep. Steve Scalise.

"I felt like I was back in Iraq," Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, a podiatric surgeon and colonel in the Army Reserve in Iraq from June 2005 to May 2006, told CBS News, per Military.com.

He later tweeted out his shocked reaction.

You never expect a baseball field in America to feel like being back in a combat zone in Iraq, but this morning it did.

— Brad Wenstrup (@RepBradWenstrup) June 14, 2017

Wenstrup said Scalise "was conscious" and "very brave" while receiving medical care – and praised the efforts of Capitol Hill police who returned fire at the gunman, James Hodgkinson, 66, who later died of his wounds.

"I saw that he was down, and then I went out to him after they had subdued the shooter," said Wenstrup, who received the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Action Badge and other awards, Military.com reported.

"I did what I did in Iraq," he told ABC News, per Stars and Stripes.

"You assess their wounds, and you cut down their clothes and look for the wound and make sure you stop the bleeding."

"I was glad I was there, but it's a sad day in America," he told Fox News, per Stars and Stripes.

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