Firefighter guarded soldier's body for hours after recovery from Potomac

When a rookie D.C. firefighter noticed one of the victims recovered from the Potomac River last week was a soldier, he decided to stand guard over the body for hours until he was relieved by a member of the military.

Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara was the crew chief of the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines flight near Reagan National Airport Wednesday night.

He was one of the first victims to be carried ashore and handed over to the D.C. firefighters waiting at a temporary morgue.

When probationary firefighter Sean Wathen — a former Marine — saw O’Hara’s flight suit, he decided not to leave his side for about four hours, multiple sources familiar with the dignified transfer said.

“One thing that I did wanted to say and thank is all those first responders, the people that sacrificed themselves to jump into that ice cold water to go through the plane and the wreckage that retrieved our son,” said the soldier’s father, Gary O’Hara. “Thank you. There are no words to express our thanks for that. You helped bring our boy home.”

He said when he first heard about the crash, he knew it was his son. But the crushing truth came the next morning when two soldiers showed up at his door.

“He will always be that 8-year-old little boy that I see running and playing,” O’Hara said. “Yeah, he was a 28-year-old man, but I’ll always think of him that way, and I just can’t believe I’m not going to see my little boy tomorrow or forever. It’s really hard.”

The O’Haras said their son, a husband and father of a little boy, could fix anything and originally wanted to be a pilot but could not get a medical clearance.

The U.S. Army will hold a memorial service at Fort Belvoir Wednesday for all three crew members who died on that Black Hawk and the firefighters are invited.

Gary O’Hara said he’d like to meet the firefighters, especially Wathen, who is assigned to Engine 12 and has been on the job for about seven months.