'Well, I've Been Hurt'
February 10, 2004
By Molly Shen
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PIERCE COUNTY - A member of the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade, Matt Staples is able to call his wife every few weeks.
Usually the conversation is dominated by talk of how the family is doing.
But Debi Staples knew something was wrong when she answered the phone Monday.
"I pick up the phone and it's my husband and he didn't sound good. He just said, 'Honey, I'm OK.' That's not good enough. What do you mean you're OK? You don't call home and say you're OK. 'Well, I've been hurt.' "
Matt told her he'd been hit by shrapnel while he and other soldiers from the Stryker Brigade loaded mortar rounds into a truck.
One went off accidentally, injuring Matt and four others and killing two.
"I pray for them every night because it's hard. It's hard to have your spouse gone," says Debi. "I don't know how the women are surviving right now, the ones who lost a husband. And I really feel bad for them."
Debi is left in the unusual position of being thankful about an injury, thankful her husband is only hurt.
Like so many of the soldiers, he has a family to come home to. He and his wife have two sons.
There's 2-and-a-half-year-old Gavin and 4-month-old Brodie.
Brodie was born three months premature weighing just over 2 pounds.
He was in the NICU for three weeks, but Matt held him the week he was deployed.
"Just before he left he got to hold him for the first time," Debi says. "I couldn't stop crying. I probably went through a box of Kleenex. I couldn't stop crying. It was amazing to see."
It's a sight Debi will see again. Because she's able to count herself as a lucky one.
Her husband was hurt, but he will be OK.
Matt is in a cast and sling right now, but he expects to recover in Iraq then get back to work with the Stryker Brigade.
