is an aftereffect. This is for the rest of his life," she said referring to her husband's amputation of his right leg in Iraq. "You don't think of 'wounded' as amputees. Nobody talks about it."
Staff Sgt. Daniel T. Metzdorf, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, N.C., was wounded Jan. 27 southwest of Baghdad when he and his men stopped to investigate a pile of trash on the supply route, Highway 1. The enigma of the tragedy is that three team members were killed, Dan's leg was ripped off, and another Soldier was peppered with shrapnel. They think the IED under the trash was an artillery shell that was remotely detonated when Metzdorf and his team approached.
Everything happened rapidly for Metzdorf. Since his leg was already severed, he immediately called Teresa from the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.
"'Hi Honey, I lost my leg,' Dan said, and then the phone connection went dead," Teresa recalled. "I started to hyperventilate, and thought 'What do I do now?'
"I called my mother, but I was so upset I couldn't speak," Teresa said. Her brother had answered the phone but didn't recognize her voice. She finally was able to tell the bad news and ask her mother, who also lived in Fayetteville, N.C., to come over. "I had an hour to cry before my mom arrived," Teresa confessed.
Teresa was worried when Dan went to Afghanistan, but she was very uneasy about him going to Iraq. "It was different. I had a real bad feeling."
As well as Dan losing 50 pounds (20 pounds was his leg), the couple had to buy a new vehicle and adapt their house. They traded in Dan's stick-shift sports car for a specially-modified pickup truck. "It was the only vehicle Dan could fit in," Teresa said with a smile. "We also had to install bars for the shower and low-pile carpet throughout the house."
The 2/505th PIR is scheduled to return to Bragg soon and they have asked Metzdorf to walk with his unit from the plane to the hangar when they arrive. Dan has been training for the last three months for that challenge. He said it means a lot to him to be able to do that. He also wants to remain in the Army.
"Dan thinks he has a lot to offer the Army," Teresa said. "Just because this happened to him doesn't make him stop being a Soldier.
"I support him," she added. "It's going to be good for him."
~*~
Dear American free reporters, meet your good neighbors.
