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Old 07-15-2004, 06:56 AM
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To Serve and Sacrifice
By ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
Staff Sgt. Rick Peters, a squad leader with the 737th Transportation Company's Third Platoon, was injured by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in last month near Baghdad, Iraq. Currently, the 35-year-old Yakima resident is on convalescent leave and doesn't know if he'll be returning to the Middle East war zone.

When Angie Peters saw her husband for the first time since the soldier headed off to active duty in the Middle East, she didn't cry.

She thought she would, but she didn't.

Outside Madigan Army Medical Center near Tacoma last week, she simply looked at him ? and held him.

"It's not how he wanted to come home," she says. "It's not how any of us wanted him to come home. But he's here now. And I'm thankful. I'm very, very thankful.

"An inch either way, who knows what would have happened?"

Her husband, a squad leader with the Yakima-based Army Reserve 737th Transportation Company, returned to Yakima on Saturday to recuperate from wounds to his left leg and forehead.

Staff Sgt. Richard "Rick" David Peters was injured June 30 in Iraq when the convoy he was traveling with hit a chain of explosives. Now home on a 30-day convalescent leave, he's resting and welcoming visitors, especially families of soldiers of the 737th, friends from Stone Church, where his family worships, and co-workers from the Yakima County Jail, where Peters works as a corrections officer.

He considers himself lucky.

"I can still see, smell and taste," he says, sitting on the sofa in the living room of his Yakima home Wednesday, his two daughters ? Hannah, 7, and Coralyn, 5 ? nestled under his arms.

"I've got my senses about me. I still have all my fingers and toes."

Peters was driving a tractor trailer, heading southeast in central Iraq between two camps about 235 miles apart, when his convoy struck a chain of explosives.

One of the explosions "actually picked the truck up," Peters says. "The front windshield basically disappeared. I thought I had lost my vision."

The blast lodged shrapnel in Peters' left thigh and calf. It also caused an object to hit his head, ripping a gash requiring about 40 stitches and several surgeries to repair damage to his sinuses.

Riding with him in the passenger seat was one of the 10 soldiers in his squad, Spc. Joseph Ballard of Pasco, a 1997 East Valley High School graduate. Ballard was also injured, hit with shrapnel in his left arm.

Both men were flown via helicopter to a combat support hospital in Baghdad. The 35-year-old Peters, a 17-year veteran of the Army ? eight years in active service and the rest in the Reserves ? was later taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for surgery. He underwent surgery again last Wednesday at Madigan.

"This weekend was really rough," he says. "My head was (swollen) like a balloon."

Doctors say Peters' wounds could take two months to heal. Meantime, he'll be going to check-ups, resting and spending time with his girls and wife.

Within 12 hours of the explosion, Peters was able to call Angie, a 28-year-old stay-at-home mom who's taking classes at Yakima Valley Community College. The couple will celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary next month. They've been apart pretty much since Peters' Reserve unit was activated Dec. 7.

"But it hasn't been a strain on our marriage," Angie says. "If anything, it's made it stronger."

The couple says they're thankful for the cards, calls and prayers from the community. They're thankful for the 737th and the work of its soldiers.

Their girls, a kindergartner and second-grader, say they're thankful their dad is back so they can wrestle with him, get tickled and tucked in by him.

And simply "spend time with him," Hannah says. "That's the only thing I want to do."

Peters could be attached to another unit stateside, or get sent back overseas. He wants to go back.

"I've got soldiers over there," he says. "As a squad leader, I want to be there to make sure they are taken care of. That's my job."

BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
Staff Sgt. Rick Peters shares a moment with daughters Coralynn, 5, left, and Hannah, 7, days after returning to Yakima to recover from wounds suffered in Iraq.
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Old 07-15-2004, 07:13 AM
MarineAO MarineAO is offline
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"I've got soldiers over there," he says. "As a squad leader, I want to be there to make sure they are taken care of. That's my job."

This is a professional Soilder.... I am glad to see he is doing well.
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