Replies

GI recovering after bullet rips through helmet

By MIKE STARK - Of The Gazette Staff

November 22, 2005

The phone rang at 2:45 a.m. Julie Mathiason caught it before the second ring.

By then, she and her husband, Kim, had become accustomed to calls at all hours from their son, Army Sgt. Mackay Mathiason, a Stryker Brigade commander in Iraq.

But instead of Mackay on the other end, a lieutenant spoke up. He introduced himself and then got to the point in a conversation that Julie said is burned in her memory.

"Mackay just wanted to let you know he was OK."

"OK. What happened?"

"Well, he's been shot."

A bit of luck

A sniper in Mosul had hit him. The bullet pierced his Kevlar helmet at the hairline in the middle of his forehead. From there, it tore across the front of his head, never penetrating his skull, and then ripped a second hole in the helmet near his right ear as it exited.

Had the bullet inside his helmet taken a more conventional path, that phone call on Oct. 29 would have brought word that Mathiason would never see his son, Noah, born less than two weeks earlier.

Instead, Mathiason, 24, is recovering nicely at a medical facility in Virginia. After spending eight days with him in a Washington, D.C., hospital, his parents are back in Billings, sure that someone was watching over their son.

"It wasn't luck," Julie said. "It was the hand of the Lord."

* * *

Mackay Mathiason grew up in Billings and joined the Army the same month he graduated from Senior High in 2001.

He was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, until this summer, when his unit was called for duty in the Middle East. They had a shorter-than-expected stop in Kuwait and then were sent into Iraq.

Vulnerable spot

Part of his job was to command a Stryker vehicle as it patrolled the streets looking for insurgents. Mathiason would typically be perched high atop the armored, eight-wheel vehicle, a vulnerable spot for a 6-foot-4 soldier.

He had three close calls before the sniper hit him. A bullet bounced off the Stryker's hatch, the vehicle parked on top of a roadside explosive that didn't detonate, and a sniper's bullet barely missed his head but blew up a nearby ammunition can, leaving him with powder burns and minor shrapnel wounds.

"That shook him up," Kim Mathiason said.

But in late October, he and his men were patrolling Mosul and looking for a silver car that had been connected with a sniping incident.

Suddenly, the car tore past their vehicle and a sniper fired through the empty back window.

At first, Mathiason didn't know he'd been hit, according to his parents. He was still giving orders when one of his men noticed he was bleeding.

The bullet's path left a gash across Mathiason's forehead. The impact caused bruising and bleeding in his brain. Many were surprised he survived.

"The doctor said to him, 'Son, you shouldn't even be here,' " Julie said.

He was taken to Talafar and then to Balad, where he received stitches for the 3- to 4-inch wound on his head. He was then transported to a military hospital in Germany and put on a list to be taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

There, he was able to talk on the phone to his wife, Leslie, and with his parents.

"All that mattered was that we heard his voice," Julie said. "We told him we loved him and he said he loved us."

Along the way, Kim and Julie were in regular contact with Mathiason's doctor, nurse, superiors and fellow soldiers. It helped to hear not only about Mathiason's physical health, but also that he was in good spirits and cracking jokes.

Through it all, his parents relied on their Christian faith and the military community that responds when one of their own is in need.

"Our hat's off to them," Julie said. "They've been amazing."

***

At Walter Reed, Mathiason's family, including his parents, wife, two daughters and newborn son, stayed at Mologne House, a hotel on the grounds reserved for families of wounded soldiers.

They went to Mathiason's room on the first morning and watched him hold his son for the first time. They also spent time with some of the other soldiers and their families.

"I did a lot of crying," Julie said.

Mathiason's parents were struck by the camaraderie and courage of the soldiers, despite the wounds they'd suffered. Kim said several told him they'd go back to Iraq if they could.

"The attitude of the guys is remarkable," he said.

On an outing to see the National World War II Memorial, a man spotted Mathiason. Julie Mathiason told the man her son had recently been wounded in Iraq.

"He said, 'I just want to thank him for his service,' " Julie said.

Afterward, as they walked away, Mathiason stopped his parents and fastened on their shirts two Purple Heart pins that he bought at the memorial.

"I wear my pin just as proudly as he's going to wear his," Julie said.

***

But Mathiason has no interest in being portrayed as a hero. There are a lot of soldiers in worse shape than he is, he said.

Besides, he told his parents, he was just doing his job, just like the rest of the soldiers over there. His parents said he's always been unselfish and has been missing the other members of his unit since he's been out of action.

"That's the kind of person he is," Julie said.

Those serving in Iraq are proud of the work they're doing and sometimes are frustrated that the good deeds - building schools, restoring power, connecting with Iraqi children - don't show up in the American media very often, his parents said.

His parents talk to Mathiason every few days. They're planning on having him and his family at their home for Christmas.

And this week of Thanksgiving is sweeter than ever. Julie said she gives all of the credit to God for sparing her son.

"That's the miracle," she said. "Our son is still with us."

Mathiason, who has tremors on his left side and struggles with balance, will need physical therapy. Last week, he was transferred to a medical facility in Charlottesville, Va., where his rehabilitation continues.

He hopes to get back the Kevlar helmet he was wearing that day in Mosul.

"Everybody wants to see the helmet," Julie said. "So do we."

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/22/build/local/35-mathiason.inc