Defense Department research shows one-third of Iraq war veterans have sought help for mental health issues, and officials estimate 150,000 troops have suffered concussions — mild traumatic brain injuries — since the war in Iraq began.
Picking up the pieces
Charlie 1-26 comes home from war
Stories by Kelly Kennedy - kellykennedy@militarytimes.com
Posted : Saturday Dec 15, 2007 15:52:21 EST
For 12 months, Spc. Tyler Holladay, 22, patrolled the violent streets of Adhamiya, Iraq. He raced to strap tourniquets on wounded buddies to save their arms and legs. He picked out pieces of shrapnel and performed battlefield tracheotomies to open airways.
As a medic, he’d seen more than enough to know he wanted to avoid bullets, grenades and roadside bombs — especially roadside bombs. Back in March, when a military police company had hit a daisy-chain of roadside bombs, Holladay helped fill body bags with the liquefied remains of fellow soldiers.
“That was the day I thought, ‘You’re not only going to die here, you’re going to be disfigured,’” he said. “‘It’s going to hurt. It’s going to be quick. And it’s going to be messy.’”
Now it was the last day of July 2007, almost exactly a year since he took up residence at Combat Outpost Apache in Adhamiya, one of Baghdad’s worst neighborhoods, and Holladay was out on patrol with Alpha Company. The platoon was searching an abandoned car. Normally, they would have first surrounded it with Bradleys to keep themselves safe from snipers, but not this time. They were in a hurry and had only one Bradley on the patrol.
“I’m on one knee between the car and a wall,” Holladay said. “I take two steps back, and I’m joking about a girl, and all of a sudden, I heard a loud bang. I looked down and realized I’d been shot.”
The bullet entered through his back and exited through his stomach. He understood instantly that he had a stomach wound — on a soldier’s most-feared list, it stands just behind a sucking chest wound. He also knew he would have to treat it himself.
“My gunner was looking at me with a dry Curlex bandage,” Holladay said. “I needed a wet dressing. I had him treat my back while I concentrated on the front.”
He could tell his large and small intestines had been hit.
“I realized my stomach was filling up, so I had some internal bleeding,” he said. “I knew what the chances for survival were. I was really scared.”
As he started to fade out, he asked his gunner to relay a message to the other medics: “I love them and I’ll miss them.”
“Probably the greatest feeling in my life was to wake up,” Holladay said. Doctors at a military hospital in Baghdad had stitched his intestines back together. He couldn’t eat for several days, but would require no further surgery.
Holladay was the last member of 1-26 wounded in Adhamiya. In 15 months, 31 men from 1-26 were killed and 122 wounded, making it the hardest-hit battalion since the Vietnam War. Charlie Company suffered the most, with 14 men killed — most of them in Adhamiya, one attached to another company. Holladay had served as one of Charlie’s medics, but he remained at Apache when the company moved to the base established at the old Ministry of Defense.
“I could never get away from Sector 19,” he said, referring to Adhamiya’s roughest area. “And sure as hell, I got shot in Sector 19.”
go here for the rest
No comments:
Post a Comment
If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.