First Amputee Warrior Completes Air Assault School

In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Army, Sgt. 1st Class Greg Robinson, an amputee, runs during the Sabalauski Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Ky. Robinson graduated from the 10-day course on Monday, April 29, 2013, and is the first amputee to have completed the course. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Sgt. 1st Class Greg Robinson has become the first amputee to complete Army air assault school, a course so grueling his prosthetic leg broke twice over the 10 days spent rappelling down ropes, navigating obstacle courses and completing strenuous road marches.

Each year thousands of soldiers are physically and mentally tested at the Fort Campbell school. Instructors said Robinson accomplished everything other participants did and trainers cut him no slack even though he lost part of his right leg on a deployment to Afghanistan in 2006.

When Robinson joined teammates at a brief graduation ceremony Monday at the Sabalauski Air Assault School, others called his success a testament to what can be achieved by amputees.
...

Robinson was wounded in 2006 during an attack while on a major military operation. But he said his traumatic injury wasn't going to prevent him from meeting some of the Army's toughest standards or finishing his career in the Army.

"It's not my job; it's my lifestyle," said Robinson, who has deployed four times in his 16 years in the military.

The 101st Airborne Division — unlike other airborne units in planes — uses helicopters to quickly drop troops into combat and move equipment on the battlefield.

Each day of the course began with running a couple of miles. Troops were expected to carry a 35-pound ruck sack as they complete their tasks. Though he ran with a noticeable limp, his boot and trousers covered his prosthetic leg and generally made him indistinguishable from the others. He also learned to rappel from a tower and maneuver past obstacles.

Robinson said he decided about six months ago to take on the program, though he had to get a doctor's approval. Now he hopes his accomplishment will encourage other wounded soldiers with their recoveries.

"It's not a disability if you don't let it slow you down," he said.

His instructor, Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Connolly, said there was some concern at one point whether he was going to make it through when a piston in his leg stopped working on the obstacle course.

"He got down and fixed it, reattempted the obstacle and went back on," Connolly said.

Sgt. First Class Greg Robinson, 34, of 101st Airborne Division, greets fellow soldiers on Monday, April 29, 2013, at Fort Campbell, Ky., after graduating from air assault school. He lost a lower portion of his right leg in Afghanistan in 2006 and is the first amputee to graduate from the grueling Sabalauski Air Assault School. (AP Photo/Kristin M. Hall)
Much more and additional photos at the link.

"This isn't the end. This is the beginning."

Tissue alert.

Marine Wounded Warriors visited Boston Marathon bombing victims at Boston Medical Center April 21

The two Wounded Warriors shared their upbeat attitudes with mother and daughter, Celeste and Sydney Corcoran, on life after experiencing a traumatic event.

Celeste lost both legs, something Sgt. Gabe Martinez, a combat engineer who lost both legs in Marjah, Afghanistan, in 2010, and Capt. Cameron West, who also lost a leg in battle, could empathize. Sydney, her daughter, sustained shrapnel wounds to the arteries in her legs.

“I can’t do anything right now,” Celeste told the Marines, fighting tears as she looked at her legs.

“I can’t believe it’s the same,” she said as she observed the wounds she shared with Martinez, who wouldn’t let her lose faith in spite of the circumstances.

“After this, you’ll be more independent than you ever were,” said Martinez. “This isn’t the end. This is the beginning.”

What a great thing for those Marines to do. Semper Fi!

Looking for Veterans of the Normandy Invasion

"Normandy Invasion", photo by Tom Keyser.

As many of you know, my sister Jeannine Edwards works as a sideline reporter and analyst for ESPN. She's been involved in thoroughbred horse racing for over 20 years and will be covering the Derby this year, as always, although NBC is broadcasting the actual race.

She has a special request:

A horse owner I know, Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm, has a horse in the Kentucky Derby this year named "Normandy Invasion". Rick is a true Patriot and actually went to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of the invasion. He said it gives you chills to see it.

He would like to do something special at the Derby. He's trying to find any surviving vets who were in the Normandy invasion and invite them to Churchill Downs as his guests for the race. He's already been already contacted by 2 guys but would love to have more. This could be a very neat thing.

FYI, Rick almost got out of racing entirely in 2008 when his filly Eight Belles broke both her front legs after finishing 2nd in the Derby. Most tragic thing I've ever seen. It nearly destroyed him; he's a real animal lover. I'd like to help him with this.

If you know anyone who is interested, and preferably lives in the Kentucky area (although others considered), please contact Rick Porter directly at rporter@foxhillfarmstable.com The Derby is May 4.

Rick Porter, photo by Anne M. Eberhardt.

Update, 4 May: Watch the Veterans meet Normandy Invasion at Churchill Downs.

Believe in Heroes

Veterans, combat medicine, and the Boston Marathon bombing

Tough Ruck soldiers clearing a path to victims. Photo: Military Friends Foundation.
These soldiers, participating in "Tough Ruck 2013," were running the Boston Marathon to honor comrades killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or lost to suicide and PTSD-related accidents after coming home.

When the explosion went off, Lieutenant Stephen Fiola of the 1060th Transportation Company and his group immediately went into tactical mode. "Myself and two other soldiers, my top two guys in my normal unit, crossed the street about 100 yards to the metal scaffoldings holding up the row of flags. We just absolutely annihilated the fence and pulled it back so we could see the victims underneath. The doctors and nurses from the medical tent were on the scene in under a minute. We were pulling burning debris off of people so that the medical personnel could get to them and begin triage."

Much more here.

Carlos Arredondo, center, runs with other responders with an injured man in a wheel chair past the finish line the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Photo: CHARLES KRUPA/AP
One of the Tough Ruck Soldiers was running for Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 while fighting in Najaf. His brother later took his own life in grief. Carlos Arredondo and his wife, Melida, were waiting for that runner at the finish line when the bombs went off. Carlos Arredondo immediately ran across Boylston Street, jumped the security fence, and helped the wounded.

Meanwhile, medical lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq are being used to help the Boston Marathon bombing victims:

The two bomb blasts that ripped through the finish line area at Monday's Boston Marathon have caused mayhem and injuries similar to those seen during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army medical experts said Tuesday.

But lessons learned during the past 10 years of war may also help the injured in Boston, they said.

The blasts killed three people and wounded more than 170. Injured runners and spectators sustained broken bones and head injuries. Some of the victims have had limbs amputated.

People who witnessed the blasts but escaped injury could also be affected by acute stress in the first few days and post-traumatic stress disorder in the long term, experts said.

"It's tragic," said Lt. Col. Brian Sonka, a surgeon and trauma medical director at William Beaumont Army Medical Center. "It sounds to me like the injuries may mirror the injuries we see overseas in the combat hospitals."

During the past decade, the Army has learned several important lessons during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those are being applied to the situation in Boston, Sonka said.

"In the past 10 years, there has been a revolution in the way we manage massive hemorrhaging," Sonka said. It started with work done at the Ibn Sina hospital in Iraq and has now become common practice.

And finally, there's this open letter from a wounded warrior seen at The Boys of 3/5 Facebook page.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WOUNDED OF BOSTON - As a veteran, double amputee, and fellow Massachusetts resident, I'd like to offer my condolences and deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of yesterday's attack. I'd also like to offer words of comfort and support to those whose lives were forever changed yesterday by traumatic loss of limbs. Although it's undeniably tragic , you will recover. And you must have hope that this terrible trauma will in no way stop you from living a full and productive life. In fact, this will be a defining moment in your life. In the coming days, weeks, and months, you will find a strength and resilience you never knew you had. Take solace in the fact that we, in the veteran community are recovering with you. Look to the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have lost limbs for support and inspiration.

- Army Sergeant Peter Damon, double amputee and accomplished painter

He is risen!

United States Army Capt. Ryan Kenny, of Billings, Mont., left, with the 82nd Airborne Division, holds a light over the text for Chaplain William Kneemiller, center, as he reads while Staff Sgt. Richard Webb, of Donna, Texas prepares to light the Easter candle during the Lighting of the Easter Vigil fire service of light at a forward operating base in the Arghandab Valley of Kandahar province in Afghanistan. AP Photo from Easter 2010.

And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.

And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men.

And the angel answering, said to the women: "Fear not; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified."

"He is not here, for he is risen, as he said."

Matthew 28: 1-6

After the battle: The flying ICU

Members of the of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron assist patients on a C-17 Globemaster III medical transport flight out of Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, March 21, 2013. With help from the Critical Care Air Transport Team, the crew can turn a regular medical transport aircraft into a flying intensive care unit, making it possible to move severely injured or gravely ill servicemembers by air. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Chris Willis)

By Staff Sgt. Christopher Willis

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan--Three critically injured patients need immediate transfer to a medical facility outside of Afghanistan. One has a shot to the head, the other has missing limbs and the last has an open abdominal wound. Without a mobile intensive care unit, these patients will not make the flight out.

For members of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Critical Care Air Transport Team, this is go-time.

A CCATT crew consists of a physician, intensive care nurse and a respiratory therapist. Together they can turn a regular medical transport aircraft into a flying intensive care unit, making it possible to move severely injured or gravely ill service members by air to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Starting with the aeromedical evacuation of the patients from forward operating bases, to treating them at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility and then transporting them out of the country through a C-17 Globemaster III “Reach” mission to LRMC, moving patients throughout the area of responsibility takes a working team with multiple parts.

At the Craig Joint Theater Hospital on Bagram Air Field, the CCATT crew unplugs the patient from the hospital’s power and respiratory machines and into mobile units that are positioned along with stretchers. Then with the help of the hospital staff and the CASF crew, the patients are moved to the flightline where an aircraft awaits, already configured for their needs.

Senior Airman Delton McClary, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Critical Care Air Transport Team respiratory therapist, performs an arterial blood gas sampling during flight out of Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, March 21, 2013. The results will be used to monitor the patient's hemoglobin and electrolyte levels and guide further resuscitation during the flight. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Chris Willis)

Once on the aircraft, each patient is attached to the central air and power supply and prepared for take-off. Since the majority of the CCATT’s patients are unconscious during the trip, great care is given to monitor their vitals and wellbeing.

"We make a promise to these men and women that no matter what happens, we will do everything in our power to bring them home,” said Capt. Mario Ramirez, CCATT physician. “Being a part of CCATT is a great honor and allows me to help fulfill that mission.”

While other passengers are getting some rest, the CCATT crew stays constantly on their feet observing the patients and watching for any signs of immediate medical need.

“It's all about these guys and girls who put their life on the line for us, the least we can do is give them the most optimum care we can provide,” said Senior Airman Delton McClary, CCATT respiratory therapist. “If we can get them from Afghanistan to Germany with no problems and better than when we received them, then we did our job.”

Every CCATT mission has its own unique challenges and is different than anything that exists in civilian medicine. They are trained to be a medical, surgical and trauma multi-specialty team, all in the back of an aircraft with limited resources.

“I work with an outstanding team, and together we are able to give these troops the same level of care they would get in America's best intensive care units," said Ramirez.

Pre-mission planning and good team communication is vital to the execution of CCATT mission, the job cannot be done by just one or two members of the team.

“We have learned to trust each other,” said Capt. Suzanne Morris, CCATT nurse, “During a mission there is a lot going on and you have to rely on your teammates if you want to succeed.”

Flexibility is also very important when it comes to the CCATT missions. They can be flying to an unexpected location to pick up an unexpected patient, or flying a mercy mission to reunite an injured servicemember with their families.

“Every mission has a particular place in my heart, some with great endings…some not,” said McClary. “But even more importantly, we get the patients to their family and that's the feel-good part of my job that I love to do.”

Even though the patients have a far longer journey to go for full medical recovery, they are now out of Afghanistan and at a higher level of care, thanks to the men and women of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing.

Members of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility assist patients inside Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, March 22, 2013. LRMC provides state of the art care, using sophisticated invasive/non-invasive medical equipment and is the only tertiary intensive care unit within the European theatre. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Chris Willis)

Many more photos at the link.

One Ranger's road to recovery: Aggressive use of craniectomies kept him and others like him alive

In January 2013, Staff Sgt. Dominic Annecchini sits next to a plastic mold of his skull that shows the piece that was taken out after he was shot in Afghanistan. Annecchini had a cranioplasty to replace his bone with a prosthetic piece the week before. Photo: Megan McCloskey, Stars and Stripes.
In 2003, doctors deployed in Iraq started seeing serious head traumas — the kind that used to mean these troops would never make it off the battlefield. The only two Army neurosurgeons in Iraq at the time realized they would die without a new way of dealing with the trauma. They looked to a technique used for decades to treat stroke patients: decompressive craniectomy - opening the skull to relieve pressure.

Today, one of them, Col. (Dr.) Rocco Armonda, is treating patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Megan McCloskey of Stars and Stripes has written a fascinating article about him, this treatment method, and one of his patients - Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Dominic Annecchini, who sustained a gunshot wound to the head in May of 2012.

[Staff Sgt. Dominic] Annecchini's platoon with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment was in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan training Afghan soldiers. In the dark of night on May 16, 2012, like he had on hundreds of other missions, the staff sergeant led a group to clear a house on a last-minute raid.

He opened the door for an Afghan counterpart, who then crossed into the entryway and was immediately taken out by AK-47 fire, falling into the room with the enemy. As Annecchini stepped into the line of fire to pull the Afghan out of the kill zone, a bullet bore through his night vision goggles and fragments studded his skull and brain above his right eye.

When he arrived at the combat support hospital in Bagram, the mounting pressure inside his skull threatened his life.
...

To rescue the brain, neurosurgeons cut open Annecchini’s head and excised his entire forehead.

After his craniectomy, Annecchini was in a medically induced coma for three days.

“I remember pulling security on the door and the next thing I remember I woke up in Germany,” he said.

Confused and looking around the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center hospital room, wondering where he was, a nurse leaned over and told him the news.

When he was first given a small hand mirror in the hospital bed, he didn’t look long.

“Oh, man,” he thought, quickly putting his reflection away.

He knew then his high speed life was over.

His right eye was swollen shut and his forehead was so massive from swelling, he thought he looked like the animated character Megamind, who has an oversized, alien-like head. He could barely speak and he couldn’t move his right arm or leg. Forty percent of his right frontal lobe had been damaged by bullet and bone fragments.

“The night vision goggles probably absorbed the majority of the gunshot blast, because otherwise he would probably be blinded and in a much worse state,” Armonda said.

Annecchini’s speech came back quickly, but it was as if he was paralyzed on his right side.

“He was pretty frustrated,” his wife Melanie Annecchini said. “He’d get annoyed trying to feed himself and get aggravated with me, because I wouldn’t let anyone help him. I made him do it on his own.”

She said he often tried to cheat by using his left arm to lift his right, which she shut down immediately. “He’d tell everyone, ‘She’s so mean to me!’ ”

He spent 10 days at Walter Reed and then went to the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in California for intensive, daily therapy. From June through August, he did speech, language, physical, occupational and recreational rehab every day.

Where the conventional thinking after these types of head traumas used to be that patients might be saved for lives not worth living, the results are encouraging: About 60% have functional independence versus about 10%t of head trauma patients in the civilian world.

Meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Annecchini has re-enlisted in the Army at the VA center in Palo Alto. He knows he'll have to give up being a Ranger, but hopes to stay in the special forces community to contribute however he can.

Last year he did a 5k race using a cane and came in dead last. It was a far cry from life before his injury, but he hasn't given up running again.

“That’s something he’s very motivated to do,” Dr. Armonda said. “He’s a Ranger, so he’s going to set his sights pretty high, and [running is] part of their vision of themselves as having completely healed.”

Make sure to read this entire terrific article.

The 10th Anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom

U.S. Army Task Force Regulators 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment Staff Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneels on a knee to talk with a young Iraqi boy in the Thawra 1 section of the Sadr City District of Baghdad on June 20, 2008. Photo: Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq.



There are no words to adequately express everything conveyed by this photo (originally posted in 2008). To me, it represents the highest ideals of our country and our troops, and the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people.

Thank you to the men and women of the U.S. Military for your extraordinary achievements and sacrifices in Iraq. You have freed an entire nation from a brutal dictator and given its people a chance for freedom and self-determination. The rest is up to them.

Major Hans Bakken, a U.S. Army neurosurgeon from Decorah, Iowa, enters a surgical ward March 16, 2006 in Balad, Iraq. Balad was one of the primary hospitals for troops and civilians injured in Iraq. Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images.
We will always remember your courage and your bravery, and we will never forget our debt of gratitude to all of you, especially the wounded and the Fallen. We pray for you and your families every day. May God bless you all.

"Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
- Ronald Reagan

A photo essay of 10 years Operation Iraq Freedom can be found at the Denver Post here.

Staff Sgt. Jose Pantoja: 2012 Army Aviation Association of America DUSTOFF Medic of the Year

Army Sgt. Jose M. Pantoja, a medic with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, received a gunshot wound to the face during a firefight near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2007. Despite the wound, Pantoja continued to treat the injured Soldiers and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal with Valor Device. Pantoja was recently presented with the 2012 Army Aviation Association of America DUSTOFF Medic of the Year Award (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew Leary).
From Army.mil:

WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii - A flight medic from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, was presented with the 2012 Army Aviation Association of America DUSTOFF Medic of the Year Award at the Fort Rucker Senior Leader's Conference at Fort Rucker, Ala., Jan. 29.

Staff Sgt. Jose Pantoja, C/3-25th AVN, 25th CAB, originally from Bridgeport, Texas, received this award for his actions during his deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom 12-13.

"I am very honored to receive this award," said Pantoja.

The article goes on to cover some of his achievements, but nothing does a better job of explaining who Staff Sergeant Pantoja is than this 2007 story by Army Spc. Matthew Leary of Task Force Fury Public Affairs Office.

Wounded in battle, medic chooses to stay with fellow Soldiers

FORWARD OPERATING BASE BERMEL, Afghanistan - While conducting combat operations in Afghanistan, Soldiers may sustain various non-life threatening injuries that are easily treated by a medic on site.

But when Army Sgt. Jose Pantoja received a gunshot wound to the head during a firefight near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan last summer, he was unable to turn to his platoon medic. He was the person his platoon turned to for help.

Pantoja had initially wanted to be an infantryman and looked into the possibility of joining the Army, he said. While in the recruiter's office, the idea of being a medic was suggested and Pantoja became interested in the career field.

"I asked what kind of things I would be doing, and it sounded like I would like it," Pantoja said.

In 2004, he enlisted in the Army as a medic.

Going through Basic Training at Fort Benning, Ga., and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Pantoja said he saw the role a combat medic plays in the field.

"I was fired up to be with the infantry," Pantoja said.

Pantoja was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, following his training.

"Medics belong to [2-87th Inf. Regt.], but when we deploy, we are attached to infantry units," said Army Staff Sgt. Jason M. Morgan, Battalion Treatment non-commissioned officer in charge, for 2-87th Inf. Regt.

When 3rd BCT deployed to Afghanistan in January 2006, Pantoja was attached to Company B, 2-87th Inf. Regt., and got his wish of being officially attached to an infantry company. The assignment meant Pantoja's role within the battalion would change dramatically.

Medics with infantry units have a unique relationship with their infantry counterparts, Morgan said.

"When we go out with the platoons, we eat, sleep and pull security with them," Morgan said.

So on June 10, 2006, when the Soldiers of 3rd Platoon, Co. B received direct fire from insurgent forces, Pantoja was right alongside his fellow Soldiers.

The platoon was positioned on a mountaintop observing a likely enemy movement point when the firefight broke out, said Army Pfc. Kyle A. Lewis, a M-240B machine gunner with 3rd Platoon.

"It was one of my first missions with the platoon," said Lewis, a native of Chattanooga, Tenn. "It was quiet, and next thing I knew, 10 feet in front of my truck, a rocket propelled grenade hit and bullets started flying by."

What ensued was one of the largest battles the 2-87th Inf. Regt. had been involved in during their deployment, said Pantoja.

"They had two squads of fire, and they were trying to maneuver on us," said Spc. James N. Murray, a grenadier with 3rd Platoon. "It was a pretty well organized attack."

Shortly after the start of the firefight, the platoon had sustained injuries, Pantoja said.

"A gunner ran up to me and said two of our guys were hit," he said.

Pantoja ran up to the two injured troopers and began to administer aid.

"I started to patch them up and to pull them over to cover," Pantoja said. "The firing got more intense then."

It was at this point, carrying the second Soldier to cover, that Pantoja sustained a gunshot wound to the face.

"I just felt my head turn, but it didn't want to turn. I thought I was dead," he said. "I just finished carrying the second guy to cover, and kept on treating the guys."

Lewis, who received shrapnel wounds to the hand during the attack, remembers Pantoja running up to treat him, showing signs of his injury.

"He had blood all over his face and he ran up to treat my finger," he said.

From then on, Pantoja would continue on with his mission injured.
"He was running around with a huge gash on his face, treating all the casualties," said Murray.

The Soldiers on the ground encouraged Pantoja to tend to himself and take cover, but Pantoja continued to administer aid to his injured platoon members.

In all, 12 Soldiers were injured, three of them seriously.

As Pantoja helped carry the seriously injured to an incoming MEDEVAC helicopter, several servicemembers tried to evacuate him as well. Pantoja refused their suggestions that he leave, he said.

"There was no other medic out there, so who else was going to help my guys?" Pantoja asked. "I didn't want to leave them without a medic on the ground."

When the firefight ended, the platoon took the remaining wounded and headed back to their base.

Pantoja finally sought medical attention for himself upon his return to base.

"The bleeding had stopped, but there was blood all over his face," Morgan said. "He was more worried about all the other Soldiers."

It took 18 stitches to close the wound, and a small scar below his left eye can still be seen today.

Looking back on the incident, Pantoja still isn't sure why he acted in the way he did.

"I still don't know why I did it, but they were my guys," he said. "When you're a medic you have a bond with these guys."

Pantoja was awarded an Army Commendation Medal with a Valor Device and received the Purple Heart for his actions.

"He's probably one of the best medics I've ever worked with in 13 years in the Army," said Morgan. "And it's one of the bravest acts I've seen in a long time."