Bucs host Combat Wounded, Veteran Gave Purple Heart

Veteran spreads hope, handing over Purple Heart to Bucs
WTSP
Chris Fischer
August 3, 2014

Frey reminisces of that time in his life "There was just so many bad things that happened that day, we tried to go in and save him and that's when I got shot in my arm. It was just the fog of war clearing houses in Fallujah. I really thought I was a goner."

Frey received the first purple heart in 2004, following a RPG attack in Fallujah; yet the second nearly took his life just two weeks prior to returning home. Still haunting him to this day is when his friend, Hudson native, Lance Corporal Josh Dickinson went into a house to battle insurgents.

Severely bleeding, Frey required 6 blood transfusions and 22 operations to repair his right arm.

At that point, Frey thought he wasn't going to come home.

But Friday night, Frey felt right at home, as the Bucs honored wounded warriors at their annual night practice. The story of his grand gesture fresh in the minds of the Bucs players and staff.
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