James Sperry's nightmares always take him back to Fallujah

Zia Nizami/BND
Iraq War Veteran James Sperry looks at a display of his medals and other artifacts from his time in Iraq.

Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2008
The War Within: Post-traumatic stress disorder
BY MIKE FITZGERALD
News-Democrat

James Sperry's nightmares always take him back to Fallujah.

There, he saw his friends blown apart. There, his best friend died despite his best efforts.

And there, Sperry himself nearly died on Nov. 9, 2004, when his platoon took part in the fiercest battle of the Iraq war.

Trained as a medic, Sperry, of Belleville, was taking cover behind a tank when a rocket-propelled grenade ricocheted off his Kevlar helmet, smashing it to bits and leaving him with a permanent brain injury. As Sperry lay in an alley, an insurgent ran up and fired two rounds from an AK-47 at his chest at point-blank range. Because of his armor, Sperry survived with a cracked sternum. His platoon sergeant shot the insurgent dead a moment later.



But the insurgent returned to haunt Sperry's dreams, always standing over him, firing into his chest.

Lately, however, the shadowy figure has been replaced by a different nightmare.

In it, Sperry watches himself from above. He is driving a minivan through Fallujah. His wife and 1-year-old daughter are with him.

"We're driving through," he said, "and we get all shot up."

'A headful of bad memories'
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