Wounded veteran: 'I'm still fit for combat'

[thedrifter]

Wounded veteran: 'I'm still fit for combat'
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification Number: 20031114174425
Story by Cpl. Matthew S. Richards



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.(Nov. 13, 2003) -- Although labels like "Captain Hook" and "unarmed" may lighten the mood around Capt. Jason R. Frei, it's no laughing matter that he's still maneuvering to stay in the Corps.

Frei, commanding officer of Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, lost his right hand and most of his forearm in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"My first thought was 'this wasn't supposed to happen to me,'" Frei said, shaking his head after knocking out three pull-ups with one arm and a prosthetic hook.

But it happened. His artillery battery was moving through a sandstorm in An Nasiriyah to provide fire support for 1st Marine Regiment when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his side of a hard-back humvee.

"We had been in contact all up and down the highway," said Frei, who was the commanding officer of Battery A, 1/11, during the war. "Then all of the sudden we got hit and it looked like somebody switched the lights on."

Frei lost his hand immediately, and now a two-piece metal claw attached to a prosthetic forearm is all that remains.

Gunnery Sgt. Terry E. Harrelson was in the vehicle behind Frei as the explosion occurred.

"I (saw) the vehicle blow, and I swung the .50-cal. around to provide fire," Harrelson said. "The captain jumped out into the canal we were in, and after I was finished with the .50-cal, I went down to the captain and we wrapped his arm up with a radio cord."

Harrelson knew instantly Frei had lost his hand and much of his forearm, but all they could do was wait for help.

"We were there for one hour and 29 minutes, exactly, before (2nd Bn., 23rd Marines) came and did their thing," Harrelson said.

Frei was taken in a humvee by 2/23 back to the main part of his battalion and was stranded there for another day because of the sandstorm.

"We couldn't drive or fly anywhere because of the storm," Frei said.

The next day he was flown to a recovery tent that was "half American, half Iraqi," he said.

Frei underwent surgery there and was flown to an Army surgical hospital in Kuwait for a second surgery. He was then flown home after a third stop and more surgery in Germany.

"(My wife) was just happy to have me back," Frei said.

The Casualty Assistance Counseling Officer who told Frei's wife about the injury happened to be a friend. "That made it easier on her," he said.

"I talked to her (while) in Germany and she met me in Bethesda, (Md.) on my way back home," Frei said. He returned to Pendleton in April.

The rest of the regiment returned to Pendleton not long after Frei returned from convalescent leave. He said he was "happy to see them ... and they seemed happy to see me."

"When I saw him again, I expected him to be in good spirits, but not as good as he is now," Harrelson said.

Harrelson referred to "all the people on television" with missing limbs who looked depressed and were "looking for others to feel sorry for them." But no one feels sorry for Frei because "he doesn't want you too," Harrelson said.

"I can do 90 to 95 percent of everything I was able to do before," said Frei, who before the war always got 20 pull-ups on a physical fitness test. But after the injury, he gets the minimum of three.

He wants to stay in the Corps, but it's up to the Physical Evaluation Board in Washington, D.C., which is expected to decide his fate in January.

"There are specific instructions that outline if the Marine can go on the board," said Navy Lt. Michael B. Humble, 1st Marine Division's assistant surgeon. "Then a specialist at the hospital evaluates (the Marine) and the command does a nonmedical assessment."

That assessment includes whether the Corps could use the Marine in another way.

"Then all of that is packaged and forwarded to the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery," Humble said. He added that a panel of doctors and nonmedical officers evaluate the injury and its impact.

The board can arrive at three possible outcomes: unfit for service, which means separation from the Corps; fit for limited duty, which means the Marine might remain permanently nondeployable; or fit for full duty.

If the Marine is declared disabled, the board determines his level of disability, anywhere from 0 to 100 percent, according to Humble. The percentage determines the amount of disability pay.

"They ask, 'could this person find suitable employment on the outside.' If so, they could not get disability pay at all," Humble said.

Humble says "all kinds of things come into question" in determining Frei's future in the Corps. Whether he can pass a PFT, he is right- or left-handed and or "if he is an outstanding Marine" will be considered, among other factors, Humble said.

The procedure has Frei waiting for answers.

"I love being a Marine. It's what I've done for 10 years now," he said. "I would miss it."

Still he added the Corps is not a social environment. They don't ask "what can we find for this captain to do?"

He says he'll "keep on chugging no matter what."

Meanwhile, his sense of humor stays intact.

"I saw him playing with kids at our homecoming, poking them with his claw," Harrelson said.

The fun is just part of accepting his circumstances and putting others at ease.

"My injury is a part of who I am now," Frei said. "You have to break the ice with people and something like this.

"One time I walked in the room to greet a Marine. He stood up and I said, 'sit down and don't worry. I'm unarmed' as I waved to him."

The jokes contrast with Frei's seriousness about his belief that he can still cut it not only as a Marine but in combat.

"Just like the saying goes, 'every Marine is a rifleman,' and you have to believe that to your very core, because the cost of failure in the Marine Corps is Marine's lives," Frei said. "And based on my experiences in combat, with my injury, I can still do 98 percent of everything I would need to do in combat."

"I bet he could," Harrelson said. "I agree with him 100 percent that he could (perform) in combat."

Even if Frei's board comes through and he's allowed to stay in the Marine Corps, he knows some will always doubt his fitness to serve.

"It's something you just have to keep proving you can do," Frei said. "Nobody has came to me and said, 'I don't think you can do it,' but you know there are some that think it.

"I just have to keep leading by example."



Captain Jason Frei sits with the humvee door that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq. Frei lost his hand north of An Nasiriya oon March 25 while serving as the commanding officer of Battalion A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Frei, a 31-year-old native of Hazen, N.D., recieved the Purple Heart for his wounds. Whether Frei will be allowed to remain in the Marine Corps and what his duties may be is still up in the air pending a medical review. Photo by: Cpl. Matthew S. Richards



During a homecoming celebration for his unit, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, Capt. Jason Frei is surrounded by questioning children curious to examine his prosthetic hand July 2, 2003, at Camp Las Pulgas on Camp Pendleton, Calif. Frei lost his hand after being struck by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade north of Nasiriya, Iraq, on March 25, 2003, while serving as the commanding officer of A Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Frei, a 31-year-old native of Hazen, N.D., received the Purple Heart for the injury. Whether Frei will be allowed to remain in the Marine Corps and what his duties may be is still up in the air pending a medical review. The battalion was the first artillery unit to leave Camp Pendleton on ship bound for Kuwait on Jan. 17, 2003. The battalion fired some of the first shots of Operation Iraqi Freedom, paving the way for the 1st Marine Division's advance into Iraq. The battalion was also involved in numerous firefights while they pushed north toward Baghdad. Following the conclusion of the combat phase of Iraqi Freedom, the battalion's Marines and sailors performed police and humanitarian missions.
Photo by: Staff Sgt. Bill Lisbon


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn20...E?opendocument


Sempers,

Roger

[SEATJERKER]

...A Very Honorable Courages Man,...

...Life now should give back to him, as he has given so much for it.

...