Injured infantryman captivates students with tales of Iraq combat (photos included)

Injured infantryman captivates students with tales of Iraq combat
By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 25, 2004
Last updated: 9:26 PM

NORFOLK — While volunteers worked at warp speed to make his parents’ house wheelchair-accessible, and an expert in a laboratory put the final touches on his new legs, Jon Bartlett spent Wednesday at one of his old haunts: Maury High School.

On a break from hospital life, and away from the sounds of nail guns and power saws, the 19-year-old soldier sat where he loves to be: at the center of attention and in command of a room.

About a dozen students, many in Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps uniforms, squeezed their desks into a circle around Bartlett’s wheelchair in Room 108.

The infantry grunt, a private first class with two stumps covered by desert camouflage pants, captivated the room with raucous, irreverent stories of combat.

Beneath the humor that has kept his spirits high, Bartlett’s tales were a reality check for the group, a reminder that the military they might enter after graduation has deadly serious business in Iraq.

Prompted by Linda E. Fox, a retired Navy master chief who teaches ROTC classes at Maury, Bartlett talked about what it’s like to drive a Humvee (not as fun as being the gunner), whether you have to ask for permission to shoot at a potential enemy (no), and why soldiers wear two dog tags around their necks (one to stay with the body if they die; the other for record-keeping).

“I’ve told stories for four years,” Fox said afterward. “And it still can’t compare to them hearing from him. He has absolutely the best attitude. That’s why I wanted to bring him back.”

Though just a few years older than his audience, Bartlett, who graduated from Maury in 2003, spoke with authority that Fox couldn’t question. She did, however, try to clean up his salty language, or at least translate it into less-offensive words – conditions didn’t “suck,” they “stank;” soldiers didn’t “steal” equipment from other units, they “acquired” it.

Bartlett played along – one of his nurses at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also tried, in vain, to get him to clean up his language – but he invariably slipped back into barracks vocabulary, which kept his audience laughing.

Humor, and a tendency to describe his injuries and pain without embarrassment or self-consciousness, have helped Bartlett come to grips with his new life.

He has come a long way in a short time.




Jon Bartlett tells a story about his time in Iraq to students Wednesday at Muary High School while home visiting for Thanksgiving.


Exactly two months ago, on Sept. 25 , Bartlett lost one leg when an improvised explosive device tore through the Humvee he was driving south of Fallujah. The former track athlete had the other badly injured leg, bleeding heavily, amputated. He is making the most of his first trip home before heading back to the hospital this weekend. There’s good reason to go back: He’s scheduled to get his first prosthetic leg next week, and hopes to be walking when he returns for Christmas.

His parents, and a legion of volunteers who are working on the family’s home off Little Creek Road , hope to have the house finished by then.

The project, which includes adding wheelchair ramps, a bathroom, bedroom and laundry room, and re-doing the kitchen, would normally take about three months and cost upward of $50,000 .

Dave Klemt, a general contractor whose father designed the project, hopes to finish it in 30 days. The mission is the work of dozens of organizations that have donated supplies, volunteers and money.

Klemt said that within a day of conceiving the project for the Bartletts, he had all the labor and materials lined up. The feedback from people he approached was “immediate and overwhelming,” Klemt said.

Rocky Bartlett , Jon’s father, feels a little overwhelmed himself.

A Navy veteran who joined the military during the Vietnam War, the elder Bartlett remembers warriors from that era being reviled when they got home.

In contrast, he is almost exhausted by the attention his son is receiving from the media and private citizens who want to help.

It goes against his grain to accept handouts, but Rocky Bartlett is learning to say “yes” when it’s for his son’s benefit. A benefit concert and various fund-raising effort already have netted more than $10,000 .

“You have a person who does for himself most of the time, and then you have all these people show up, all these companies. It’s overwhelming,” he said, wonder creeping into his voice. “Maybe they ought to have more Jon-Jons, so the community comes together a little more often.”

Though the back of the house has been torn off and the kitchen door now opens onto an unfinished room, Bartlett looked forward to putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for family and “lost souls” who needed somewhere to eat.

“Jon-Jon has decided he wants a home-cooked, Mama dinner, and we’re going to give him a home-cooked, Mama dinner. That’s what he wants, that’s what he’s going to get.”

Reach Kate Wiltrout at 446-2629 or kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com.





Workers from 21st Century Builders work to frame the addition being added to Jon Bartlett’s parents’ home in Norfolk. Many contractors are volunteering their time to help make the home wheelchair-accessible.


HOW TO HELP:
Friends of the Bartlett family have opened an account to help family members travel to Washington to visit Jon and pay for wheelchair-accessible changes to their home. Those interested in donating money should deposit it in SunTrust account #1000027873214 . The account is in the name of “Ruth Roper and Rocky Wayne Bartlett, FBO Jonathan Bartlett.” For more information about how to help, call family friend Ruth Roper at 839-2122.

Also, the Maury High School orchestra’s holiday concert at at 7 p.m. Dec. 21 at the school will collect donations for the effort.