JBLM soldier injured reflects on 'lifetime change'

JBLM soldier injured reflects on 'lifetime change'
Shawn Graves said a final goodbye to the world as he lost consciousness. A man wearing a suicide vest had blown himself up inside a dining hall in northern Iraq. Graves had wounds all over his torso, and he did not expect to open his eyes again.
Seattle Times
By ADAM ASHTON
The News-Tribune

TACOMA, Wash.
Shawn Graves said a final goodbye to the world as he lost consciousness. A man wearing a suicide vest had blown himself up inside a dining hall in northern Iraq. Graves had wounds all over his torso, and he did not expect to open his eyes again.

"I thought I was done," he said.

The platoon sergeant from Fort Lewis woke up from his coma three weeks later. He had survived one of the worst attacks against U.S. forces in the Iraq War, an enemy infiltration that claimed 22 lives and wounded more than 70 other people inside a forward base most troops figured was safe.

On the 10th anniversary of the war, Graves still can't explain how he made it through.

Today the 37-year-old combat veteran is sewn up, healed and home with his wife, Elizabeth, in Medical Lake. But his journey isn't over.

It never really is for many of the nearly 32,000 service members who were wounded or injured in the eight-year war, or for the families of the 4,409 service members who lost their lives to it.

"Between the physical wounds and the mental wounds that come with it, it's a lifetime change, and it affects both them and their spouses," said Brittney Hamilton of Tacoma, the director of a nonprofit group called Operation Ward 57 that supports wounded service members.
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