Part V: Joy over survival, tears at extension

Part V: Joy over survival, tears at extension
By Sharon Cohen - The Associated PressPosted : Friday Aug 8, 2008 16:29:21 EDT

Christmas Day arrived — and for two 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers, there was a gift like no other: their very survival.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Can the long separation be extended further? Yes, and for some there’s major fighting ahead. Fifth of a seven-part series on the longest deployment of the Iraq war.
Sgt. J.R. Salzman had arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center hours earlier, days after being critically injured in a roadside bomb in Iraq.
A few doors down, Sgt. John Kriesel already had settled in as a patient after he, too, was maimed by an explosion.
For both, there would be a long hospital stay and an even longer recovery. The two bombing survivors had much in common but they took different paths in starting over.
Kriesel had to learn to walk again with prosthetic legs.
Salzman would learn to write, feed and dress himself with an artificial arm.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_longdeployment_080808/