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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Veteran coping with injuries: 'It changes everything'


Veteran coping with injuries: 'It changes everything'
Richard Lake


• March 19, 2008


They come from all corners of the state, these 200-plus warriors, and they suffered all sorts of injuries, from gut wounds to nerve damage to brain trauma.

And now, many of them are home from Iraq. Some have moved on. Some are trying. Some are not sure if they'll ever be able to get back to the way things used to be.

"It changes everything - your personal life, your career life. It changes the way you see everything," said David Yancey, 34, severely injured by a bomb three years ago.

Yancey, who lives in the small north Mississippi town of Ripley, is one of an estimated 266 Mississippians who have been wounded in action in Iraq, according to Department of Defense numbers updated March 8, the latest number available.

Like many, he hasn't fully recovered from his injuries and expects he never will. He is receiving disability payments from the government.

Same with Ellis Martin.

Bearable would describe the life he has carved out. He exists.

Martin, 43, like Yancey, was injured by a bomb in the spring of 2005.

He was a platoon sergeant then, part of the Army National Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team. He enlisted way back when he was 17, in 1982, unsure of his path.

He had just missed getting sent to Iraq for the first Gulf War, and spent six months in Bosnia on a peacekeeping mission back in 2001 and 2002.

He worked as an offshore driller in his civilian life.

And then, Iraq.

On March 2, 2005, his unit's mission was to herald a group of engineers to a series of bomb craters to analyze them.

As they arrived at their fourth crater that day, he and Sgt. Robert Shane Pugh exited their Humvee.

A sudden explosion - later discovered to have been set off remotely by a cell phone - knocked them both down.

Pugh, a combat medic, lay mortally wounded. He helped instruct others on how to take care of Martin before he died, an action for which he was posthumously honored with the Silver Star.

Martin was hurt badly. His upper left arm was shattered; the muscle was torn, the nerves damaged.

Shrapnel scarred his back, cut a nerve in his leg, ripped into his bladder and colon. The force of the blast twisted his pelvis.

A huge piece of shrapnel nearly killed him, but because his helmet had fallen backward a little, the shrapnel was stopped.

"If my helmet had been on right, it would have hit me in the back of my neck," he said.

He spent more than a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, enduring 30 surgeries to fix what was broken.

He was given a medical retirement, and came home in the summer of 2006.

Because of nerve damage, his left hand doesn't work right. The nerves in his right foot are messed up, too, giving him what's called "drop foot."

He can walk OK and can drive a car but uses his left foot for the brake. He can't do any kind of manual work except for a little house keeping and light recreation.

He is as recovered, he said, as he is ever going to get. He watches TV now, visits with his three grandchildren and rides a four-wheeler for fun.

His house just outside of McComb soon will be fitted for wheelchair access - just in case he needs it later on.

Yancey, the soldier from Ripley, hopes he is through with Walter Reed. He has publicly criticized the way he and others were treated there.

He spent two years at the Army hospital following his March 29, 2005, injury.

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