American Legion Post in Seattle Awards $500 to 100% Disabled Iraqi Veteran: An after-action report from an observer
In the summer of 2004 Specialist R.D. of the United States Army was riding in a HUMVEE lacking armor protection in a suburb of Iraq, with three of his fellow soldiers. They were returning from a rendezvous with a native informant, with whom they had just exchanged cash for "intelligence" about local terrorist activity. As the Humvee passed a tree, an IED was exploded remotely (the person who set off the IED was, it later turned out, was the supposed friendly "informant"). The informant was killed by Marines a year later.
The explosion killed two of the soldiers in the Humvee outright, permanently paralyzed a third soldier, and inflicted grievous wounds on Specialist RD. His right eye was pulverized, his left eye was blown out of his socket and left hanging between his left cheek bone and his left eye lid. A sizable piece of shrapnel entered his brain and remains there to this day. The front third of his skull was also blown away by the blast.
The medic arriving on the scene considered RD dead, but detected a very weak pulse and so he performed emergency triage on him.
RD remained in Iraq for five days where the word was passed to his parents in Seattle that his son would die very shortly. He was transferred to a major U.S. hospital in Germany where his parents, told that his son's death was now surely imminent, met him upon his arrival, prepared to say good-bye. RD was in a coma and the doctors told his parents that even if he did survive, which was highly unlikely, he would never talk or have any "normal" cognitive abilities again. He would spend the remainder of his life in a ward in a vegetative state.
RD was flown to Walter Reed Hospital a few weeks later, where he was to spend 10 months recuperating from his wounds, including undergoing many operations.
His mother reports that within a few weeks the United States Army repeatedly tried to discharge RD, but she refused all attempts. The idea was that the Army could then transfer her son to the VA system and he would then become their patient. While he was in Walter Reed, the Washington Post broke the major story about the conditions at the facility. The family believes the Post exaggerated many of the details of the situation at Walter Reed, but they are also convinced that despite the wonderful care rendered to RD by 99.5% of Army medical staff, the military was and remains woefully unprepared for the large number of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) cases coming out of Iraq. The reports commonly told by the media about continuing problems in this area are all too real.
Today, after months of therapy and reconstructive work including his regaining his sight in his left eye (wears a black patch over his right eye) and the frontal portion of his skull having a sort of plastic hockey mask kind of implant placed there, instead of his normal skull bone, RD and his mother are heavily involved in veterans issues around America. RD has lost 90% of his hearing, but wears a hearing aide in one ear.
He has been awarded the Purple Cross. Tonight the local American Legion, of which I am a member, awarded him a $500 grant in appreciation of his sacrifice. He has problems with his temper, but otherwise his cognitive abilities and his physical appearance are remarkably intact. He counsels other veterans returning from the war, whenever he can.
He and his parents are both extremely bitter, for different reasons. RD feels "used" by the administration. He and many of his Army buddies believe the administration lied to them in the process of putting them in harm's way. He says that many, many active duty soldiers feel similarly. To no one's surprise, his parents report there was little or no preparation by the administration to administer to the thousands of physically and psychologically wounded veterans now arriving home from Iraq. Small progress has been made, but the reason RD improved so much so quickly was because his mother would not take no for an answer.
RD is on permanent 100% disability for the rest of his life.
Summary: we honor and celebrate the incredible sacrifice of all our service men and women. We also continue to decry the callous indifference to the plights of those who died in Iraq, as well as those who return home forever altered and embittered by the experience.
This administration must be held to account for the harm it has inflicted on its military, American prestige around the world, our self-esteem, and on the Iraqi people.
No matter how many RD's we honor, it will never make up for the amount of damage George Bush has inflicted on America in seven short years.
RH