Posted on 04/09/2004 6:13:18 PM PDT by Eurotwit
INDIANAPOLIS - A Marine from Indiana whose smiling, cigar-smoking image helped symbolize the fall of Baghdad a year ago suffered severe head injuries in fighting this week in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah.
AP Photo
Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch, 36, of Terre Haute, marked Friday's one-year anniversary of the fall at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Surgeons removed a piece of shrapnel that lodged near his optic nerve when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his tank Tuesday in Fallujah, his wife said Friday.
"He had to have his right eye removed. He's very concerned about that," April Popaditch said from Twentynine Palms, Calif., where her husband is based.
She said they spoke for 45 minutes after his surgery ended.
"I cried to him like anyone would to their loved one. Everything just came out," she said.
She said she told him, "I thank God that you have your two arms and two legs. I thank God for the wonderful Marines who were right around your tank to get you off to safety."
The two, who were married 13 years ago Thursday, also exchanged anniversary greetings. They wed a few days after Nick Popaditch returned from his first tour of duty in Iraq (news - web sites) during the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites), and now have a 10-year-old son.
April Popaditch spent their wedding anniversary a year ago watching video footage of her husband's tank in Baghdad. An Associated Press photograph captured him smiling and holding a cigar in his hand with a statue of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) looming in the background shortly before it was toppled.
His company finished its Iraq tour last year, but he joined another company that left for the region at the end of February, April Popaditch said. It was sent to Fallujah, where four Americans were killed and mutilated last week. Fighting this week in Fallujah has killed four Marines and more than 280 Iraqis.
"He is one of those Marines who has his hand raised anytime there's something overseas," April Popaditch said. "He says he goes for the people we lost on September 11."
Popaditch probably will be moved to a hospital in the United States within a few days, said Maj. Daniel Smith, executive officer of the 1st Tank Battalion based in Twentynine Palms. Losing an eye will end Popaditch's tank career, Smith said.
"He's been in the tanks enough, so he will be fine with that," April Popaditch said, but she added she hopes her husband can continue in the service.
Terre Haute Tribune Star - 4/9/04
Terre Haute native hurt, Soldier injured in Fallujah
By Suzanne Risley
It was one year ago today that Nick Popaditch smoked a cigar in downtown Baghdad as people toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein behind him.
It was two days ago that the Terre Haute native was seriously injured after being hit by enemy fire while inside a tank in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
Today, he is being treated for injuries to his face and the possible loss of his right eye in a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
The gunnery sergeant was traveling in an M1A1 Abrams tank with Charlie Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division when it came under fire about 3:30 a.m. (EST) Wednesday. The tank was hit on its side by a rocket-propelled grenade, said Maj. Dan Smith from a Marine base in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Attacks against U.S. and coalition forces have escalated in the past several weeks. At least four Marines have been killed this week in Fallujah after attacks by Sunni militants, according to Associated Press reports.
Nick Popaditch first was taken to the 31st Combined Surgical Hospital in Baghdad before preparations for his transfer to Germany began about 10 p.m. Wednesday, Smith said.
Smith notified April Popaditch early Thursday morning of her husband's injuries. She was en route Thursday to the Twentynine Palms base from a mountain retreat where she and her son, Nicholas, had been staying, said his mother, Dolores Popaditch of Terre Haute.
Whether his wife will travel to Germany to be by Popaditch's side depends on doctors' assessments of his condition, Smith said. Medical personnel have to establish if Nick Popaditch is well enough to receive visitors and how long he needs to stay in Germany, Smith said.
Cable news channels on Thursday ran footage of the attack, in which family members could see the 36-year-old escaping the tank. No one else in Charlie Company was seriously injured, Smith said.
"It's hard. We kept seeing him," said sister Gina Alexander of Wheatfield. She saw her younger brother crawl out of the tank and lay his head down. She then saw him lying in a gurney with his head wrapped in bandages.
"If I had seen that before I knew he was all right ... ," Dolores Popaditch said. "It's looking better than what we thought."
An Associated Press photo of Nick Popaditch sitting atop a tank and smoking a cigar made several U.S. newspapers on April 10, 2003, the day troops rolled into Baghdad. At the time, he was a staff sergeant with Bravo Company.
He was shocked that he was featured in so many papers, his mother said Thursday. Nick Popaditch came home from the seven-month tour in July. He went back a few months ago with Charlie Company because they needed him. He didn't have to go back to Iraq at that time, she said.
"He's a dedicated Marine. He loves the Marine Corps," she said, adding he also served a seven-month tour in Desert Storm.
Nick Popaditch joined the Marine Corps in 1986, after less than a semester of college at Indiana State University. The youngest of five children, he graduated in 1985 from Terre Haute North Vigo High School, where he was an honor student.
"I'm just glad he's out of Iraq," Dolores Popaditch said. "I feel sorry for those that are still there."
We didn't know him, but he sure did spend some time on the daily OIF threads with belly girl, lifting spirits.
My great, great grandfather lost an eye during the Civil War....and remained a handsome man (according to my great, great grandmother, and what else matters? *g*).
"He is one of those Marines who has his hand raised anytime there's something overseas," April Popaditch said. "He says he goes for the people we lost on September 11."
Thank you, Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch.
Prayers going out for this courageous family.
Yeah. I used to be proud to be an American. These days, I'm deeply humbled to be one.
Prayers for a speedy recovery. Damn, this gets my anger up.
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