Bionic US troops go back to war

[emad]

Sunday Times
Sarah Baxter, New York
Amputees returning to frontline duty can outrun the rest of the regiment on their high-tech legs



IN A US military camp on the Kuwaiti border, Captain David Rozelle is waiting for the order to lead the soldiers under his command into Iraq for a new tour of duty.

A cavalry officer, Rozelle lost his right foot in 2003 in Iraq when a mine planted in a dirt road exploded under his Humvee. After a gruelling recovery, he is the first amputee to return to combat duty in Iraq.

He is proud to be pioneering a route back to active service for seriously wounded soldiers. “I didn’t want the terrorists to decide for me whether I stayed in the army or not,” he said.

“I hope I’m going to break the ice for others to follow. It’s not easy but I’m going to prove it can be done.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1522894,00.html

[Gin]

1. I have been thinking of these guys who want to return to this war

with missing limbs......I wonder if they think.... as amputees...they wouldn't be able to find jobs...and the thought of being unemployed and unemployable is more frightening than going back to Iraq.

Just wondering why anyone who experienced what they have...would want to go back to that environment.

I wish them well.

[mhr]

2. Some People Never Learn When To Hang Up The Spurs And Saddle

I showed a young man in my community, that has been hounded by Marine recruiters, the war injuries reported in the New England Journal Of Medicine last December.

I asked him a simple question:

Are you willing to become disfigured, or worse Die, like these kids your age for one George W. Bush?

After he almost lost his cookies looking at the disfigurement, he came to the conclusion that Bush's war was not worth the risk that he would come home tattered from a roadside bomb or dead.

WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTO LINKS - PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/24/2476