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Iraq veteran finds his home more hospitable thanks to retrofitting by Homes for Our Troops

Iraq veteran finds his home more hospitable thanks to retrofitting by Homes for Our Troops
Brian Hayden - NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 07/05/08 10:28 PM


Charles Lewis/Buffalo News
Mark and Denise Beyers show off the master bathroom of their home which was retrofitted for wheelchair access by a national nonprofit that builds and reconfigures homes for disabled veterans.


When Marine Lance Cpl. Mark Beyers first moved into his town of Wales home, daily activities such as showering, cooking food and leaving the house were almost impossible.

Not anymore.

Beyer's home recently was retrofitted by Homes for Our Troops, a national nonprofit that builds and reconfigures homes for disabled veterans.

Beyers, who lost an arm and a leg to a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq in 2005, said he is grateful for the life-changing alterations made to his house.

750 amputees

So far the Iraq War has led to amputations for more than 750 servicemen and women. The high number is due in part to the body armor that protects the trunk. Without it, many of these soldiers would have died. In fact, about 92 percent of those wounded in Iraq survive their wounds, as opposed to 76 percent in Vietnam. [
She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it.

By Stephen Dobyns | Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008
source]

Local soldier injured in Iraq

Local soldier injured in Iraq

By Rosalie Currier
Sturgis Journal
Fri Jul 11, 2008, 11:54 PM EDT

Sturgis, Mich. -

Robert Barthel, a sergeant in the U.S. Army and a 2001 Sturgis High School graduate, was injured Tuesday near Nasser Wa Salam in Iraq.

Barthel and his squad were on patrol when their Stryker was struck by an improvised explosive device, according to his mother Sally Cleveland of Sturgis.

Barthel was severely injured in his right leg and foot. After a failed attempt to restore circulation to his right foot, he was flown to Germany, where his right foot was amputated.

More female soldiers serve 'inside the wire'

More female soldiers serve 'inside the wire'

SAN ANTONIO (AP) Badly wounded and woozy from medication in a chopper speeding over Baghdad, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Sophia Mitchell softly sang the ''I Love You'' song she and her daughter had made up.

''They must have thought I was high on the morphine,'' Mitchell said.

In those fragile hours, clinging to life after a mortar attack, she kept thinking of her 5-year-old girl, Jurnee. Mitchell is one of 599 women wounded in the Middle East and part of the first wave of female combat amputees in U.S. history.

Most people see patriotism and the sacrifices of war as masculine values. A vast majority of the nearly 2.6 million Americans killed or wounded in major conflicts since the Revolutionary War have been men.

But in today's war, women play a larger role and even are at risk ''inside the wire'' of a secured base. Of the 4,650 U.S. troops whose deaths the Defense Department counts relating to the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, 110 were women, and 61 of them were killed in combat.

Day by day, Marine battles adversity

Day by day, Marine battles adversity

By Sarah Bultema
Loveland Reporter-Herald
Chris Hahn, a Marine, lost his leg a few years ago while serving in Iraq.

Now, back in Loveland, the veteran’s lost his job because of complications from the amputation.

But through it all, he’s kept his faith that life always works out the way it’s supposed to.

“Like I said when I lost my leg, I think everything happens for a reason,” Hahn said from his Loveland home.

What’s left of his left leg, which was amputated just below the knee, was propped up on a couch pillow.

Wounded veterans participate in program established to aid their recovery

Wounded veterans participate in program established to aid their recovery

By RICK MALWITZ • STAFF WRITER • July 10, 2008


EDISON —The last act John Wayne Walding did when he was perfectly whole was come to the aid of a fellow soldier shot in Afghanistan.
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"My buddy was shot. He said, 'Help me,' and gave his location, and then I got shot,'' said Walding, a 27-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant from Waco, Texas.

Walding, who suffered a below-knee amputation of his right leg as a result of the attack, was asked if his buddy is recovering. "Yep. We all lived,'' he said.

"I'm fine,'' Walding said. "There's no remorse. I was doing my job.''

She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it.

She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it.

By Stephen Dobyns | Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008


She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it.

Most stories begin with a person or an event. This one begins with a book.

Last summer I read The Brain That Changes Itself by research psychiatrist and psychologist Norman Doidge, M.D., which discusses developments in neuroscience, especially in the area of neuroplasticity. Now, if I were in a bar and the guy on the next stool leaned over and said to me what I’ve just written here, I’d give a wave to the bouncer. But hang on.

Man crafts walking sticks for wounded soldiers

Man crafts walking sticks for wounded soldiers

By Ann Bailey - Grand Forks Herald
Posted : Monday Jul 7, 2008 6:07:26 EDT

PORTLAND, N.D — On Independence Day, and every other day, soldiers at Walter Reed hospital in Washington know they can lean on Dennis Enger.

The Portland man has dedicated himself to making willow walking sticks for the soldiers who have had a leg amputated. Enger began carving the sticks from willow tree saplings two years ago.

“I had a friend whose grandson lost a leg over in Iraq, so I thought I had to do something,” he said.

A Vietnam-era Army veteran, Enger has a strong kinship with young men who are serving their country. He contacted a fellow member of the North Dakota Vietnam Veterans of America organization to find out how he could distribute the sticks to veterans at Walter Reed. The organization delivered about 50 of Enger’s walking sticks to the hospital in February 2006.

.Va. vet heads for Iraq to help amputees

July 6, 2008
W.Va. vet heads for Iraq to help amputees
Dave Evans lost both legs just below the knees in Vietnam. For 34 years now, he has committed and risked his life to help people like him all over the world.
By Paul J. Nyden
Staff writer

Dave Evans lost both legs just below the knees in Vietnam. For 34 years now, he has committed and risked his life to help people like him all over the world.

Next week, Evans heads to Iraq to help upgrade prosthetic clinics and train Iraqis to replace arms, legs and feet for amputees.

"I don't care what side you are on. I don't care what politics you have," Evans said last week. "I will take care of you if you are an amputee."


The U.S. State Department is financing his work and also will pick up costs to train Iraqis to help the wounded.

Injured Marine finds support in community

Injured Marine finds support in community

BY CATHERINE TRUMBO • Loveland Connection • July 5, 2008

LOVELAND - Chris Hahn, an Iraq war veteran, and his wife, Rachel, were settling into their lives and new jobs earlier this year when Hahn's leg began to hurt.
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Hahn, a Thompson Valley graduate and Marine, served two months in Hit, Iraq, until he was injured the night of Jan. 30, 2006.

Hahn's foot was crushed when the troop carrier he was riding atop as a gunner went off a ravine and flipped on top of him.

"That was the only time I thought I was going to die," he said. "The truck rolled on top of me. It looked like it was going to roll one more time. It rocked toward me, and then it rocked back. I pulled my leg out and crawled back. I was torn up pretty bad. They gave me four shots of morphine."

MLB honors America's heroes at parks

MLB honors America's heroes at parks
Veterans throw out first pitches in pregame festivities
By Mike Scarr / MLB.com

On Friday it was time to stand and deliver.

To honor our nation's 232nd anniversary of its birth, a select group of veterans tossed honorary first pitches at ballparks hosting games for the Fourth of July holiday.

The gesture is part of Major League Baseball's "Welcome Back Veterans" initiative taking place at big league games across the U.S. this weekend. Baseball will also honor veterans during games on Sept. 11.

Group helps local veteran regain freedom

Group helps local veteran regain freedom

Updated: July 5, 2008 09:20 PM

WALES, N.Y. (WIVB) - In the fight for freedom, one of America's bravest from western New York lost his independence.

His right arm had to be amputated along with one of his legs below the knee.

Marine Lance Corporal Mark Beyers was severely injured in Iraq nearly three years ago..

Now, he finally has a home where he can regain his independence.

This is reality for Marine Lance Corporal Mark Beyers nearly 3 years after being injured by an improvised explosive device. "When you're a Marine, you kind of think you're a little bit invincible."

Iraq veteran gives back to soldiers

Iraq veteran gives back to soldiers
By Chris Foreman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, July 4, 2008



Tim Boots pointed to the logo of the Wounded Warrior Project, a silhouette in which one soldier carries another to safety.

Three years ago, the Connellsville Area High School graduate was aided by a fellow Army National Guardsman after he was severely wounded in a car-bomb explosion in Bayji, Iraq.

"Now, I'm getting the chance to be the guy on the bottom, giving somebody else a hand," Boots said Thursday.

Boots is one of 16 wounded veterans serving as summer interns for the Jacksonville-based nonprofit organization. They are traveling the country to answer Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' questions about possible health and educational benefits and disability claims.

Yankee Intern, Injured in Iraq, to Throw Out First Pitch Friday

Yankee Intern, Injured in Iraq, to Throw Out First Pitch Friday
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

Tony Odierno, an Army officer who lost an arm to a grenade, has helped in planning for the All-Star Game and the new stadium.

Barton Silverman/The New York Times

Tony Odierno, left, and his father, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 2005.

Odierno lost his left arm when a rocket-propelled grenade smashed through his Humvee in Iraq almost four years ago. As an Army lieutenant, he was leading three vehicles through southwest Baghdad when his life changed. The grenade cost Odierno an arm and his driver his life.

Odierno calmly but vividly described what happened that night. As he spoke Wednesday, he sometimes clutched the prosthesis under the sleeve of his gray shirt. His story validates why the Yankees consider him an overqualified intern in their stadium operations department.

Wounded vet chooses to laugh

Wounded vet chooses to laugh
By Travis Hill | More by this reporter | Record Sports Columnist | Posted: Friday, July 4, 2008 ; Updated: 12:50 AM on Friday, July 4, 2008
STORY PHOTOS

Dan Nevins elected to have his own right leg amputated in January. And that's not the most amazing thing about him.

Nevins is a golf addict, shooting in the mid-80s. That's not it, either.

Nevins is an Iraq war veteran. He lost his left leg when an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up his Humvee on Nov. 10, 2004. Nope.


What makes Dan Nevins so incredible is his laugh. It's pretty plain, as laughs go. A little goofy, but nothing out of the ordinary. Except that they happen a lot. And they are genuine.