Woodcarvers turn knives to creating unique canes for wounded troops

Woodcarvers turn knives to creating unique canes for wounded troops
The Dispatch of Lexington
20 December 2006

LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Everything changed for Army Pfc. Phillip Bauer on Nov. 2, 2003, when his Chinook helicopter was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, killing 15 American servicemen and injuring 25 others.
Bauer, a scout with the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, had his right leg amputated below the knee after the single deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Each of the soldiers on the helicopter had been granted temporary leave from Iraq and were headed home for a two-week break to rest and see loved ones. The helicopter made the crash landing after being hit by the missile on the way to Baghdad International Airport. Bauer was going to Lyons, N.Y., to see his wife and their four children.
As of September, Bauer was one of 725 war amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Web site.