Hurt Afghan fighter finds new life in Va.
By KATRICE FRANKLIN HARDY, The Virginian-Pilot
© December 18, 2002
Last updated: 6:36 PM
HAMPTON -- The last memories Inayatullah Ahmadzai has of Afghanistan are of his legs being blown off by a grenade and having to use his bloody hands to push the brakes on his truck.
Extreme pain is all he recollects of a month in a German hospital.
Memories of the seven months he's lived in America are more vivid. He remembers the dozens of caretakers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., who eased his suffering and taught him how to move around without his legs.
Ahmadzai, a native Afghan who helped America fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, arrived in Hampton Roads this month, with a wheelchair, several Army T-shirts and cut-off pants. He is under the care of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond's Hampton Refugee and Immigration Office.
About a dozen Afghan soldiers who fought in the war on terrorism now live in the United States. Ahmadzai is believed to be the only one not related to Afghan president Hamid Karzai, said James Michael Hoffman, an attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
Ahmadzai never thought of coming to America when he joined the war back in February. Nor did he envision being disabled and alone.
The basics of American life, such as running water, telephones, televisions and computers sadden him.
Such was unheard of in Afghanistan. And he misses his parents, wife and four children. He wants to get a job to help them, but they don't know about his injuries.
``I don't tell them,'' Ahmadzai, 23, said.
The muscular man, who looks much older than his years, turned his head.
His gaze grew distant. His soft voice faded, his eyes welled with tears.
He tried desperately to remember how his wife, mother and father looked.
But he couldn't.
War is all Ahmadzai knows. His family fled its hometown of Lowgar, Afghanistan, shortly before his birth and found refuge in neighboring Pakistan. They lived in refugee camps for 15 years while the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan.
The fighting left his family with nothing when they returned home.
Ahmadzai worked as a truck driver, traveling between Pakistan and Afghanistan, to make money. He married at 17 and lived with his wife in his parents' home.
Ahmadzai and his father often talked about the group of factionists, calling themselves Muslims, who took over Afghanistan.
But Ahmadzai and his father didn't believe the Taliban were Muslims.
Muslims don't believe in killing, Ahmadzai said.
Muslims want each other to get a good education and achieve prosperity. They don't believe in oppression.
``These guys are crazy,'' Ahmadzai said.
Ahmadzai's concern for his country led him to fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
He met American soldiers in February near the Shah-i-Kot valley _ an area about 100 kilometers away from his hometown.
Their strategy was to sneak up on Taliban and al-Qaida forces by barricading several exit points.
But American forces weren't prepared for the size of the combatative forces -- four times what military officials had anticipated. Intense fighting in freezing weather and altitudes that reached as high as 12,000 feet killed as many as 800 enemy soldiers.
The battle of Shah-i-Kot killed eight Americans and injured 70. Three Afghan ally soldiers died and 18 were wounded, including Ahmadzai.
On April 8, Ahmadzai was driving 10 soldiers to an area that needed to be secured. They were supposed to set up a checkpoint on a bridge leading into the Shah-i-Kot valley.
They were traveling down a hill when two men on a motorcycle threw a grenade inside the truck. An Afghan friend sitting near Ahmadzai was killed. Others were wounded.
Ahmadzai remembers hearing his fellow soldiers yelling for him to stop the truck. Continue + audio interview