Posted on 01/18/2004 7:46:40 AM PST by BrooklynGOP
One young man was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. Another walked almost effortlessly on two prosthetic legs. Alex Presman, with a barely noticeable limp, joined them in a meeting with advocates as the three Iraq war veterans pondered their futures.
Presman lost his left foot six months ago while in a convoy from Diwanya to Baghdad to pick up medical supplies. He stepped on an explosive device planted in the sand, and his foot was blown off and a baseball-size chunk of flesh was ripped out of his right calf. Shrapnel pierced his legs and arms.
He was fitted with a prosthetic foot and learned to walk with it. He was awarded the Purple Heart on Aug. 2, his 26th birthday.
Presman is part of the first wave of soldiers reentering civilian life after recovering from grievous injuries.
His story is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, that will play out as the war in Iraq nears the one-year mark and the stream of wounded - who now number 2,500 - continues.
With the help of groups such as VetsFirst and the Wounded Warrior Project, injured veterans are beginning to make their way.
"When a military unit comes back, they get a parade, but a wounded guy coming back by himself really doesn't get a whole lot of attention," said Al Giordano, an advocate at VetsFirst.
The group helps the vets navigate the government benefits system and helps with transportation, employment and assistance to families.
VetsFirst and soldiers are finding out about each other by word of mouth.
VetsFirst is a division of the United Spinal Association, which also works with the Wounded Warrior Project, a grass-roots group started by John Melia, a Virginia-based veteran who visits the newly wounded at Walter Reed Medical Center and Bethesda, Md., Naval Medical Center. He provides them with toiletries, clothing and lodging for relatives.
Like most wounded arriving from Baghdad or Landstuhl, Germany, Presman landed at Andrews Air Force Base for the trip to Bethesda in a bloody hospital gown.
"We're trying to help them as soon as they get into the hospitals, and then after their recovery," said Steven Nardizzi, associate executive director of United Spinal. The group handles everything from filing claims with the Veterans Administration to providing wheelchairs and securing grants for handicapped-accessible housing and autos.
"I'm trying to recover, get back to civilian life," Presman said. "I want to get my education benefits so I can go to school, maybe for business management."
Presman came to the U.S. with his family in 1994, at 16, from Minsk, Belarus. They settled in the heavily Russian area of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He became an American citizen before joining the Marines after high school in 1996.
He is one of some 30,000 foreign-born soldiers in the U.S. armed forces.
"We came here because it was the land of opportunity," Presman said with a wry smile. "It was so different here from Russia; it was better."
He is Jewish, but not religious, "but it was nice to see you can do whatever you want here."
A bantam with military bearing, he speaks softly and holds a cigarette as he tells his war story.
He became a corporal, a heavy-vehicle operator who drove Humvees and 5,000-ton trucks with the 6th Communication Battalion, Motor Transport Platoon, out of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
He arrived in Kuwait on Feb. 14, 2003, and spent three months there going on missions, bringing medical supplies and munitions to other units. He said there were 40 missile attacks in the first week of combat.
His tour had been up on Dec. 30, 2002, but in May 2003, when his unit was asked for volunteers to go forward to Iraq, he went.
"That's why you join the Marines," he said with a shrug.
The next two months in Iraq brought scorching heat and constant gunfire. His unit was attached to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, and last July 15 it headed to Baghdad for medical supplies. He was the sawgunner that day, manning an M-240 machine gun in the Humvee.
They stopped for a smoke along the road. "They said it was safe to stop there," Presman said. He was walking off the road behind his buddies when the explosive device knocked him off his legs.
"I looked down at my foot and it was just meat hanging off," he recalled. "I was conscious all the time. They had no morphine, and I waited an hour for the chopper."
He still had his left heel, but it had to be amputated. After Bethesda, he was transferred to Walter Reed.
"I've seen a lot worse in the hospital - a guy lost both arms up to the shoulders."
He said he will try skiing and hopes to run again in a year or so.
He offered this advice to the men and women who are still coming to Walter Reed and Bethesda: "Life goes on ... you've got to keep your spirits up. It's a big change in our lives, but you have to adapt and go on."
Originally published on January 18, 2004
Man that one heavy truck...geeze. As for how he loose leg...walking off of hard balled surface road on side is stupid to extreme...we always warn guys not to do dumb thing like this in Bosnia. One major go for piss and not listen....miss leg from then on.
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