Looking for the bright side (lost arms in Iraq)

[leftchick]

http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2004/11/25/news/news/news02.txt

<snip>

It has not been an easy year since Oct. 22, 2003, when Damon, a Massachusetts Army National Guardsman, woke up in the medical unit where his comrades had rushed him the day before.

He had lost his left hand and right arm while changing the tire on a Blackhawk helicopter in a hangar in Balad, Iraq. Damon had been working beside Spc. Paul Bueche, a 19-year-old National Guardsman from Alabama.

"I had known I had lost my arms. When I woke up I knew they were gone," Damon recalled. "Bueche was working with me. (I wondered) where was he? That's when I found out he was dead."

In a drug-induced haze, Damon fretted about his future. An electrician and aircraft mechanic, he had always used his hands to make a living. What was he going to do now?

[Crunchy Frog]

1. One of the sad things about this is

that since the injury happened as a result of an accident rather than enemy action, he probably is not even being counted in the number of wounded.

As far as the official wounded numbers go, he doesn't even exist.:-(