Giving veterans a hand by a veteran

Giving veterans a hand
By KATHY CLEVELAND
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009
MILFORD – Three years ago Matthew Bernard was riding in an armed Humvee in Ramadi, Iraq, when a roadside bomb almost killed him.

It was the second time in a week he was injured, and this time he was left with burns, a fractured neck, injured shoulder, temporary hearing loss, and a severe concussion.

The Army awarded him numerous medals, including two Purple Hearts, and sent him home from Iraq.

After a visit to an Army hospital in Germany, he was shipped to the U.S. where he spent two weeks in a Georgia hospital, then discharged with a treatment plan.

Shayne, his wife, drove him home to Milford, and he waited for a follow-up phone call.

But there was no phone call; no one in the service seemed to know he was here.

“I couldn’t understand. I was still fresh from the battlefield. It was hard not to feel abandoned,” he said. “I guess they expected me to coordinate the treatment.

“It was a very devastating experience, but it turned into something positive,” said the 32-year-old Bernard, who lives in Milford with his wife and five children.

Later that year Bernard was on a plane headed to Florida to visit another injured soldiers from his unit when a National Guard officer, Command Sgt. Major Greg Crotto, overheard him talking to other soldiers about his homecoming experience and invited him to explain his situation to a top official in the state National Guard.
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Giving veterans a hand