Wounded Soldiers

"When she began photographing, there were 1,000 wounded, she says. The number has risen to 27,000 to 28,000 wounded in action. Those numbers swell to 60,000 to 70,000 if those not wounded in action -- described in Berman's book as having incurred "combat support or non-hostile injuries," and therefore not eligible to receive a Purple Heart -- are included."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07250/815292-42.stm#

Triple amputee seeking dreams in Hollywood

Triple amputee seeking dreams in Hollywood
By Robert McCoppin Daily Herald Staff
Published: 9/6/2007 12:02 AM

Bryan Anderson would love to show people what it's like for a wounded soldier to get back to normal life -- but he can't.
As he puts it, "I wouldn't call this a normal life."
It's not losing limbs in Iraq that skews Anderson's life, to his way of thinking.
It's his whirlwind schedule of television shows and films, meeting celebrities and constant traveling that's unusual for a 26-year-old guy from Rolling Meadows.
Almost two years after a roadside bomb blew off both of Anderson's legs and his left arm, he tells his story in "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
He predicts the documentary will hit home with audiences wondering what life is like for soldiers suffering traumatic injuries in the war.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=31590

Alive Day Memories: Interview with a Soldier
Posted September 7, 2007 05:40 PM (EST)

"Alive Day" refers to the day a soldier is wounded and narrowly escapes death. To date, more than 25,000 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq. Though 90 percent of the injured survive, many of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and amputations. In HBO's Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, executive producer James Gandolfini interviews 10 wounded soldiers and marines about their experiences in Iraq and back home. First Lieutenant Dawn Halfaker was 24 when she lost her arm in an explosion in Baqubah, Iraq. I spoke with Halfaker about how her life has changed since 6/19/2004 -- her "Alive Day"-- and why she refuses to let her injury define her. Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq premieres Sunday, September 9 at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-halper/alive-day-memoriese_b_63531.html

Honorable homecoming: Soldier returns home to enthusiastic welcome

Honorable homecoming: Soldier returns home to enthusiastic welcome
By Dorothy Nobis The Daily Times
Article Launched: 09/08/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


FARMINGTON — The tears and hugs of a mother, the obvious pride of a father, the excitement of a sister — and the cheers of countless friends and relatives greeted Spec. Jeffrey Rogers when he entered the terminal at Four Corners Regional Airport on Friday afternoon.

http://www.daily-times.com/news/ci_6834220

WOUNDED VETS SOLDIER ON

WOUNDED VETS SOLDIER ON
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/9/07
BY KELLY-JANE COTTERSTAFF WRITER Post Comment

ABOUT 90 PERCENT of the soldiers wounded in the war in Iraq survive their injuries.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that a new generation of veterans must learn to survive with extraordinary injuries — brain damage, multiple amputations, blindness and post-traumatic stress disorder so severe it almost seems visible, like a sizzling cloud of pain.
Wounded soldiers, and the medical professionals who treat them, speak of the day they were attacked as their "Alive Day," the day they nearly died. It makes for a macabre anniversary.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/ENT/709090318/1031

Marine Cpl. Jacob Schick gave his all in Iraq.

Marine Cpl. Jacob Schick gave his all in Iraq. But when the Gretna man came home -- minus a leg and with his arm in shreds -- he found a veterans' health-care system that didn't return that commitment
Sunday, September 09, 2007
By Bill Walsh

The bomb that tore through the floor of his Humvee in the fall of 2004 shredded his legs and left arm. Forty-six surgeries later, Schick is an amputee still learning to cope with physical limitations that as a star high school athlete he never dreamed he would face.
Perhaps just as daunting has been learning to navigate the veterans' health care system, which he says demeans the sacrifice of all veterans.
"When you have to deal with the VA (Veterans Affairs) or TRICARE (the federal health insurance program), you feel beaten down," Schick said. "You are a number, and you feel like a number. It's a total, total beat-down."
Schick, 25, who grew up in Texas and Louisiana and now lives in Gretna, is one of the 10 injured veterans featured in an HBO film, "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," that airs tonight. The title of the documentary, produced by "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini, refers to the date that the injured narrowly escape death and realize that they are still alive.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-9/118932307262670.xml&coll=1

When the War Comes Home

When the War Comes Home
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/HBO

By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: September 8, 2007
A few months ago, an actor named James Gandolfini ended his career as a mythologized crime boss on a television series called “The Sopranos,” which had drawn considerable attention for nearly a decade. Why all the fuss? Well, in the teensiest nutshell, “The Sopranos” served as a kind of mirror of the national consciousness, and Mr. Gandolfini, in the role of Tony Soprano, as a symbol of contorted morality and middle-class aspiration. He bore such a huge share of the cultural trust that when “The Sopranos” finished, he must have felt like a statesman who leaves office still bound to furthering the public good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/arts/television/08aliv.html?ref=television

Gandolfini's 'Alive' honors war wounded

Gandolfini's 'Alive' honors war wounded
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By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

Just days before HBO film crews were to descend on Walter Reed Army Medical Center to record the plight of the Iraq war's wounded soldiers, the Pentagon nixed the plan — fearful of publicity about to surface over lax outpatient care.
HBO's longtime documentary chief, Sheila Nevins, had lined up Sopranos star James Gandolfini and 24-7 access on the heels of 2005's Emmy-winning Baghdad ER. A dozen filmmakers were stationed throughout the hospital.
Nevins and Gandolfini were forced to Plan B. The result: Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq (Sunday, 10:30 ET/PT), a stark, intimate look at the physical and emotional toll for many of the military's more than 25,000 war wounded.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-09-04-gandolfini-alive-day_N.htm

Preview: Photos of wounded Iraq vets show ongoing debilitation

Preview: Photos of wounded Iraq vets show ongoing debilitation
Friday, September 07, 2007
By Mary Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Spc. Sam Ross, 21, of Dunbar, Fayette County, was blinded and made an amputee when a bomb blew up during a munitions disposal operation in 2003.
Images of the Iraq war shown in the media early on didn't ring true to Nina Berman, an award-winning documentary photographer. "The coverage seemed very unrealistic to me," she explained by telephone Tuesday from New York.
One of the viewpoints missing was that of the badly wounded soldiers whose experiences and losses were such an essential part of the war, she says. So in 2003 Berman entered the world of veterans, and their families, who were adjusting to civilian life while coping with serious physical and/or mental disability.
Berman will be here today for the opening of an exhibition of 12 of her penetrating photographs, "Purple Hearts," at Pittsburgh Filmmakers Galleries in North Oakland.
One of the things that distinguishes her photographs is their home setting. They could almost be candid snapshots, like any of the other thousands taken daily around the world, except for the disfiguring scar, the distant stare, that separates, and now defines, these individuals.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07250/815292-42.stm#

ODU student featured in HBO's 'Home from Iraq'

ODU student featured in HBO's 'Home from Iraq'
Jon Bartlett of Norfolk, pictured here at Old Dominion University, is one of 10 former soldiers and Marines profiled in an HBO documentary that airs Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. DELORES JOHNSON THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot © September 5, 2007
NORFOLK

Jon Bartlett knows what he'll be doing Sept. 25.
The 22-year-old college sophomore has two classes on Tuesdays: statistics and management.
He'll mark the day another way, too.
"I'm going to write something horribly depressing. I do every year," Bartlett said matter-of-factly - brightly, even. "It helps."
This Sept. 25 will be the third anniversary of the day a roadside bomb blast transformed Bartlett from strapping teenage soldier to double amputee. One of 10 former soldiers and Marines profiled in "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq," the HBO documentary that airs Sunday night at 10:30, Bartlett describes his journey from soldier to patient to college student. The documentary was produced by James Gandolfini, former star of "The Sopranos."

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=131765&ran=165899

Wounded soldier gets a hero's welcome in Las Vegas

Wounded soldier gets a hero's welcome in Las Vegas
Sept 4, 2007 10:24 AM EST

A 19-year-old soldier wounded in Iraq got a second homecoming Monday at McCarran Airport. Army Private First Class Adrian Garcia doesn't live here, in fact it was his first trip to Las Vegas.
But a group of fifty veterans from the American Legion and the VFW decided to give him a hero's welcome anyway.
News 3's Jesse Corona says Adrian came to town to meet his new best friend, a best friend he'd never met before either.

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7019494&nav=menu107_2

Soldier who lost legs in Iraq war works to rejoin unit

Soldier who lost legs in Iraq war works to rejoin unit
04:26 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 4, 2007
By MICHAEL BECKERThe Press-Enterprise

Interactive: Watch Martinez take his first steps and hear him talk about his recovery
SAN DIEGO - It was a calm, clear day when Army Spc. Saul Martinez arrived at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. His wife, Sarah, rolled the wheelchair up a metal ramp to the physical therapy building.
Martinez, a 2003 Bloomington High School graduate, had dreamed of this day for three months and worked tirelessly to ensure it went as smoothly as possible. When using prosthetic legs for the first time, failure takes on a number of forms. One misstep could cause the bones in his leg to penetrate the skin. One fall could strain his left kneecap, negating 10 weeks of agonizing physical therapy.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/healthcare/stories/PE_News_Local_D_war_athlete_04.3df8a60.html

Demand for prosthetic limbs by amputees outpaces supply in Baghdad

Demand for prosthetic limbs by amputees outpaces supply in Baghdad
James Palmer, Chronicle Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

(09-04) 04:00 PDT Baghdad - --
Ibrahim Sadic Shokic stares at the wide scar that runs along what remains of his leg.
Thirteen months ago, surgeons severed the 15-year-old's right leg above the knee after it was mangled by a roadside bomb while Shokic was enjoying a sunset stroll in central Baghdad.
Four months after the attack, Shokic was fitted for an artificial limb at a government facility, but he is still waiting for his prosthesis - tottering along on a pair of decrepit crutches he bought on the black market for $40.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/04/MNPVRTF15.DTL&type=health

Tragedy leads to life of hope and support

Tragedy leads to life of hope and support

Veteran who lost both legs in Iraq shares story with Rotary Club membersBy Mary LodenOf the SummitRobert “BJ” Jackson's life changed forever on Aug. 7, 2003, a rare day off for the soldier serving in Iraq.Jackson and several other soldiers drove into Baghdad to do some shopping and just relax. Nobody paid much attention to the young boy following them from place to place. It wasn't realized until much later that he was the tipster for terrorists who planted a landmine underneath one of the Humvees.

http://www.northiowanews.com/articles/2007/09/05/news/news06.txt