A soldier's story: An officer & the new president

Monday, January 5, 2009
A soldier's story: An officer and the new president
News 10 Now - Syracuse,NY,USA
Updated: 01/05/2009 08:34 AM
By: Neil St. Clair

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Jose Sanchez has served his country and paid a price for it.




"Coming back was scary. There was an explosion and I got knocked 10 feet back in the air. I broke an index finger, I lost 30 percent of my hearing, screwed up back, and I have nerve damage in my right arm."



A sergeant in the U.S. Army, Sanchez was a member of the National Guard for almost 20 years.

He spent more than a year and a half deployed in Afghanistan.



"We got into a fire fight for six and a half hours. They were just as close as you and me. They fired everything at us: RPGs, mortars, bullets. We lost one guy. He was roadside bombed. They had a daisy chain link of three explosives, it just cut him in half, he didn't even know he died."


It's scenes like that that left Sanchez not only physically but emotionally disabled.




"I get depressed, most of the time I don't even want to leave the house. I might be sitting here talking to someone and I'm gone somewhere else. A lot of times I have nightmares, anything can trigger it. It will take me back to Afghanistan."



A native of New York City, Sanchez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

He's lived at this house in Binghamton for 10 years, but nearly lost his home due to a bank error while helping at Ground Zero during 9/11.



He's since had to file for bankruptcy, and he lost his business while in Afghanistan.

Now permanently disabled, Sanchez is still able to stay positive and hopes to head back to school to study sports management.

He says he was treated well even by strangers when he came back from Afghanistan, but one episode still haunts him.



"The only big disappointment coming back was being thrown into Walter Reed Army Hospital. It was scary, it was filthy, the conditions were deplorable. As a veteran, I think I deserve more than a crackhouse hotel and what these people were putting us in."
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