Alabama officials visit amputee victim from Afghanistan conflict (5/6/03)

Alabama officials visit amputee victim from Afghanistan conflict

By Jeffrey McMurray
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Alabama National Guardsman Scott Barkalow lost his right leg fighting for his country in Afghanistan. Next week, he's getting fitted for a prosthetic one, and he's hoping it'll allow him to return to the battlefield someday.

Modern medicine makes Barkalow's dream a possibility, but it's his patriotism that attracted a group of prominent Alabamians to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Monday, to give him a hero's welcome.

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