Dispatcher Honored Says Handling Fairchild Tragedies ‘Kind Of Like Motherhood, A Thousand Things At Once’

(From For the record, Friday, April 21, 1995:) A story in Tuesday’s newspaper, “Dispatcher honored,” spelled the name wrong of the sheriff’s dispatcher who was recently awarded the department’s medal of merit. Melody Higgins is the correct spelling of her name.

Melody Higgens tried not to think about anything except sending help after a gunman had opened fire at Fairchild Air Force Base last June.

Four days later, the 32-year-old Spokane County sheriff’s dispatcher sent help again when a B-52 bomber crashed at Fairchild.

“It’s a crazy job,” Higgens said Monday after a ceremony in which Sheriff John Goldman awarded her the department’s medal of merit. “It’s kind of like motherhood, a thousand things at once.”

She also was named the state’s telecommunicator of the year for 1994 by the Northwest chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communication Officers.

During both tragedies last June, Higgens was the dispatcher assigned to cover the county’s north and west areas.

On June 20, Dean Mellberg opened fire in the hospital annex at Fairchild, killing four people and injuring 23 before he was shot to death by a military policeman.

As the shooting spree began, Higgens played a crucial role in ensuring that authorities properly responded to the base.

“We were sending everybody and anybody we could,” she said.

Before they learned of the shootings, Higgens and another dispatcher were in the midst of sending officers to calls about a woman who had shot herself and a mental subject who was harming his family.

Making things even tougher was that it was shift-change time for deputies. The only other county dispatcher on duty, Lisa Peterson, was new.

“It couldn’t have been at a worse time,” Higgens said.

So she took charge.

She dispatched officers and emergency crews from agencies throughout the county to Fairchild while Peterson kept track of the other county calls.

Meanwhile, Higgens was getting all kinds of calls for help from the base, including false reports about a second gunman in the hospital and a gunman in a Fairchild residential area.

Base residents thought they saw a man matching the description of the gunman - who was believed to be partially dressed in black.

What they actually saw, said Higgens, were members of the base SWAT team heading to the hospital with no time to get properly dressed.

Still, some of those calls had to be checked out, Higgens said.

Her superiors praised her fast work.

The base and the Sheriff’s Department don’t share a radio channel, said her supervisor, Jan VanWert.

So Higgens quickly asked an Airway Heights officer at the scene to relay information to Fairchild officials, a technique she’d just learned, VanWert said.

Other dispatchers were called to back up Higgens and Peterson. But even they marvel at the work of Higgens and Peterson.

“Melody really had to react fast because they were short-handed,” said Cindy Thompson, a graveyard communications supervisor who was called in.

“It’s the first few moments that are so crucial.”

The Sheriff’s Department requires a minimum of two dispatchers on duty.

A former Army satellite intelligence officer, Higgens took her own two children to the base hospital and knew some of the staff.

But she tried not to think of them as she dispatched help.

“You kind of set your own feelings aside and just go,” she said.

On June 24, Higgens again had responsibility for the area that includes Fairchild. Her peers teased her, saying that something was bound to happen.

“I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s not going to happen twice,”’ Higgens said.

Then a B-52 bomber crashed, killing four people.

Higgens learned of the crash from 911 operators in a nearby room, then got a call from Fairchild and began the process of sending crews to the base all over again.

She is pleased with the recognition of her work during both events, but hopes people will remember the victims.

“Our hearts go out to the people at Fairchild, the victims and their families,” she said.

“The focus should really be on them.”

ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo