Former Salem selectman talks about soldier son's recovery

We can talk about the fallen, but we never seem to think of the families enough. We can talk about the wounded but still, we don't think about what happens to their families. Here's a story of just one of them and what they had to give up to take care of their son.

Former Salem selectman talks about soldier son's recovery from injuries suffered in blast
By Jillian Jorgensen
jjorgensen@eagletribune.com


SALEM — Arthur Barnes knew the call that would change his life could come at any moment. When your child is in Afghanistan, he said, you live with a constant baseline of worry.

But when that call did come last month, informing him that his son had been critically wounded and might not survive, Barnes wasn't ready for it.

"You're never really prepared for that call," he said. "You never expect it. It just sort of comes."

Sgt. Arthur Barnes IV, 30, a Salem High graduate and Vermont National Guard soldier, had been riding in a vehicle that was hit by an improvised explosive device, and was evacuated from Afghanistan to Germany. The Army tracked down his parents volunteering at Rockingham Christian Church, and told them to get to a place where they could be near a phone for the next 24 hours.

"The only way I could describe my state of mind to you is like being in a fog," Barnes said last week from Washington, D.C.

Barnes, who resigned as a Salem selectman last week, has been by his son's side at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for about six weeks now, but his journey has just
begun.
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Former Salem selectman talks about soldier son recovery