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GIs STAYING IN SERVICE DESPITE LOSS OF LIMBS --
Less
than a year after the attack he is running
again with a high-tech
prosthetic leg and plans to take up a new
assignment.
Story here...
http://www.philly.com/
dailynews/national/7759662.html
Story below:
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GIs staying in service despite loss of limbs
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO - In the blur of smoke and blood after a bomb blew up under
his Humvee in Iraq, Sgt. Tawan Williamson looked down at his shredded
leg and knew it couldn't be saved. His military career, though, pulled
through.
Less than a year after the attack, Williamson is running again with a
high-tech prosthetic leg and plans to take up a new assignment, probably
by the fall, as an Army job counselor and affirmative-action officer in
Okinawa, Japan.
In an about-face by the Pentagon, the military is putting many more
amputees back on active duty - even back into combat, in some cases.
Williamson, 30, a Chicago native who is missing his left leg below the
knee and three toes on the other foot, acknowledged that some will be
skeptical of a maimed soldier back in uniform.
"But I let my job show for itself," he said. "At this point, I'm done
proving. I just get out there and do it."
Previously, a soldier who lost a limb almost automatically received a
quick discharge, a disability check and an appointment with the Veterans
Administration.
But since the start of the Iraq war, the military has begun holding on
to amputees, treating them in rehab programs like the one at Fort Sam
Houston and promising to help them return to active duty if that is what
they want.
"The mindset of our Army has changed, to the extent that we realize the
importance of all our soldiers and what they can contribute to our Army.
Someone who loses a limb is still a very valuable asset," said Lt. Col.
Kevin Arata, a spokesman for the Army's Human Resources Command at the
Pentagon.
Also, just as advances in battlefield medicine have boosted survival
rates among the wounded, better prosthetics and treatment regimens have
improved amputees' ability to regain mobility.
So far, the Army has treated nearly 600 service members who have come
back from Iraq or Afghanistan without an arm, leg, hand or foot.
Thirty-one have gone back to active duty, and no one who asked to remain
in the service has been discharged, Arata said.
Most of those who return to active duty are assigned to instructor or
desk jobs away from combat. Only a few - the Army doesn't keep track of
exactly how many - have returned to the war zone, and only at their
insistence, Arata said.
To go back into the war zone, they must prove they can do the job
without putting themselves or others at risk.
One amputee who returned to combat in Iraq, Maj. David Rozelle, is
helping design the amputee program at Walter Reed Medical Center in
Washington. He has counted seven other amputees who have lost at least
part of a hand or foot and have gone back to combat in Iraq.
Rozelle, 34, from Austin, Texas, said he felt duty-bound to return after
losing his right foot to a land mine in Iraq.
"It sounds ridiculous, but you feel guilty that you're back home safe,"
he said. "Our country is engaged in a war. I felt it was my
responsibility as a leader in the Army to continue."
Soldiers who lose a limb early in their careers are more likely to want
out. Those with long service are more motivated to stay.
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Larry Scott --
