Our Heroes

[Shortdawg]

Many have lost limbs, suffered severe head trauma and shrapnel wounds in combat, vehicle accidents and other mishaps. Additionally, more than 3,000 soldiers have left Iraq with illness or psychiatric problems.

Like a shotgun

Many soldiers wear ceramic body armor ? the vests are nicknamed chicken plates ? that can stop a bullet from an AK-47 rifle. But it only goes so far.

"The wounds we see here are much more severe than what I've seen at home," said Army Sgt. Albert Gasbarra, working in Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad with the 28th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Bragg, N.C. A former paramedic for an ambulance corps in New York City, he has seen his share of gunshot wounds.

"Here, it's not unusual to see multiple gunshot wounds," Gasbarra said via E-mail. "They seem to be getting meaner and meaner. At first it was gunshot wounds, then it was RPG's [rocket-propelled grenades] and now it's IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. These things can range in size from a Coke can to a medium size box and even a watermelon. To me, the wounds from these things closely resemble a shotgun wound. Happily, the majority of these guys recover, so I guess it's a debilitating weapon rather than a killing one. Although that's happened too, unfortunately."


Source: O'Shaughnessy, Patrice. "War's Bloody Fallout." New York Daily News. 12 Oct 2003. Link. Posted 20 Oct 2003.


Wasim Khan

When a rocket propelled grenade struck his checkpoint in Northern Iraq on June 1, Sgt. Wasim Khan of Richmond Hill became part of an unheralded and growing legion of wounded.

When Khan, 27, of the Army's 1st Armored Division, was struck by shrapnel, he was sent to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for five days before being transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
...
Khan has spent the last four months in Ward 57 at Walter Reed, where the maimed lie in limbo waiting for prostheses.

Souce: Duggin, Dennis. "The Growing Legion of Wounded." New York Newsday, 08 Oct 2003. Link. Posted 20 Oct 2003.


Alex Leonard

Spc. Alex Leonard is expected to return to the United States on Wednesday or Thursday, his parents said. Leonard was serving with the U.S. Army 101st in Mosul, Iraq, when his convey was attacked.
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His injuries ?are extensive but he is very optimistic,? his mother, Sandy, said.

Leonard lost part of his leg below the right knee and also has multiple fractures to his left leg, left arm and elbow, corneal abrasions on both eyes and many open wounds, she said.

Source: unsigned. "Injured Montana soldier to return to United States." Billings Gazette, 01 Oct 2003. Link. Posted 20 Oct 2003.


Curtis Mills

[Penny] Mills said her husband has a compound fracture of his right arm which will require major reconstructive surgery. He also has serious shrapnel wounds to a flank and his leg, which may require neurosurgery once doctors are able to assess possible damage to his sciatic nerve.

Source: Quimby, Beth. "Wounded reservist back in U.S." Press Herald (Portland, Maine), 30 Sept 2003. Link. Posted 20 Oct 2003.


Isaiah Pasterski

Susan Pasterski said Isaiah had been on a general mission in Baghdad, and they had already swept for mines. She said there was one man on the road, but before he could react the grenade went off.

"(Isaiah) was hit by shrapnel in the shoulder, face and eye," Pasterski said. "He was the driver of the Humvee. He doesn't remember much, except being pulled from the vehicle and moved to another."

The accident occurred about 7 p.m. Oct. 11 in Baghdad. (Iraq is about nine hours ahead of Central Time in the United States.)

From Kuwait, Isaiah was flown to Germany, where he is waiting in a hospital. He will be flown to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., sometime this week.

Susan Pasterski said he may have to have the lens replaced in his eye, but that full recovery is expected.

"He has such gorgeous blue eyes," she said Monday. "It's so frightening. It's your worst nightmare - to know your child is hurt and you're not there."

Zarling, patti. "De Pere native injured in Iraq." Green Bay News-Chronicle, 19 Oct 2003. Link. Posted 20 Oct 2003.


Niles Brush

On June 11, Niles Brush was talking with Iraqis in a car at a military checkpoint in Ad Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad.
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About 3:45 a.m., as Brush talked to the Iraqis through an interpreter, a large truck came barreling through the roadblock. The truck veered and hit one of the Humvees, which slammed into Brush, throwing him 40 feet through the air. Even now, it's not clear whether the driver hit Brush on purpose or by accident.


Brush remembers nothing of the collision, but its consequences are painfully etched across his 6-foot-6-inch frame. He still wears a neck brace after surgery to repair several bones in that area. One rib was broken. A lung had to be reinflated.


One foot is in a cast, and skin grafts cover his right leg. When he walks, he walks on crutches.


He is smiling and young and full of hope and promise, yet he knows his body may never be the same. He is 28 years old, and some day in the not-too-distant future the military will tell him how disabled he'll be for the rest of his life.


Source: Moore, Michael. "Wounded Butte soldier recounts experiences in Iraq." Montana Lee Newspapers, 10 Sept 2003. Link. Posted 18 Sept 2003.

[Boats]

MY heart goes all to all these guys - what an effort they must be putting in to keep from being sabotaged and bush-wacked. They are pretty brave men to do what they have been called upon to do.

Hard roads ahead for many of them them but they too will remain in our thoughts and prayers.