Proper Exit, trips offer Iraq vets closure

Brian A. Barbour / Courtesy of the U.S. Army
From left: Sgt. Robert Brown, retired Staff Sgt. Bradley Gruetzner and Sgt. Christopher A. Burrell walk through “Hero’s Highway” on June 25 at the Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. Brown, Gruetzner, Burrell and four other soldiers wounded in Iraq had the opportunity to return to the places they once served in a program called Operation Proper Exit.

For the wounded, one last mission
‘Proper Exit’ trips offer Iraq vets closure
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, September 21, 2009

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Some soldiers are returning to the places where they were wounded in Iraq under a program that aims to speed their recovery and close a painful chapter in their lives.

"They left without closure. … They left behind their belongings, their friends and battle buddies," said Rick Kell, director of the Troops First Foundation, who devised Operation Proper Exit after hearing wounded soldiers talk of their desire to return to Iraq. "We have heard for so long that Vietnam veterans wanted to go back and in their words, ‘have some closure.’ I thought why not try to get some of these guys to go back in real time so they don’t have to wait 30 years? "

Six soldiers took part in the initial trip in June, and another is planned for November.

One participant in the June trip was Staff Sgt. Kenneth Butler, 29, of Braintree, Mass., who lost his right arm above the elbow in a bomb attack while serving in Baghdad in 2007.

"I blacked out a few times," said Butler, who recently retired from active duty. "The last time was at FOB Rustamiyah and I woke up at Walter Reed."

Almost all wounded soldiers want to go back to where they served, Butler said.

"They want to rejoin their team and to be part of the fight and leave that place on their own terms and not on a gurney almost dead," he said.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64913

Also older story on Operation Proper ExitWounded Warriors Return to Iraq

Wounded Warriors Return to Iraq

Wounded Warriors Return to Iraq
June 29, 2009

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (American Forces Press Service) – Six wounded soldiers, all amputees, returned here last week hoping to close the door on the combat that changed them forever.

The last time Sgt. Christopher A. Burrell was in Iraq, he was pulled from a burning vehicle in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. A tourniquet applied by another soldier saved his life, but a nurse here at the Air Force Theater Hospital had to break the tragic news—his left leg was gone, taken by an explosively formed projectile.

Now, almost a year and a half later, and after months of rehabilitation and physical therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Burrell returned to Iraq with five other amputee combat veterans as part of Operation Proper Exit.

”I don’t remember much, but I remember my nurse,” Burrell said. ”Shelly. She was an angel, there to comfort me when I was in a difficult spot.“

Operation Proper Exit, a United Service Organizations pilot program sponsored by the Army and the Troops First Foundation, allows soldiers wounded in combat to return to Iraq. The goal of the program is to give the soldiers an opportunity for closure, and to see the progress made in securing and stabilizing the country, Burrell said.

”It kind of helps you heal mentally and emotionally, to close that chapter in your life so you can move on,” he said. ”The progress that’s been made—it shows that we made a sacrifice but it was for a reason.”
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http://www.army.com/news/item/5539