I was wounded on the 12th of November while maneuvering my 3rd platoon in pursuit of a group of RPG (rocket propelled grenade) gunners. My wounds included 7.62mm gun shot wound to each leg and a shot to my left buttock. The tibia and fibula in my left leg were fractured and required reconstructive surgery, which I received at Walter Reed Military Hospital. The right leg received a gun shot wound that luckily did not hit any bones. My left buttock has an entry and exit wound but no major damage.

The week prior to my contact had been one of unusual violence. My company provides one platoon (about 35 men and 7 to 8 vehicles) everyday for a set period of time to the battalion to secure highway 10 (route Michigan). The platoon works for the battalion but is under the Delta Company for command and control purposes.

On the 8th of November and a day after the battle for Fallujah began, my second platoon, while on the route security mission, was attacked by a suicide car bomber. The attack seriously wounded SSG Koontz (the 4th squad leader in 2nd PLT) and wounded three other soldiers to include the Platoon leader 1LT Godoy. All the soldiers were returned to duty except for SSG Koontz, who is still recovering in the Fort Carson area.

The 9th of November, 1st Platoon took over the route security mission and half way into their mission a tank in the far eastern section of the battalion's area of responsibility reported that a group of insurgents had attacked their M1 main battle tank. The tank reported over the radio that they had engaged three RPG gunners. They reported that they had killed one, wounded one and the third was on the move. 2LT Hurley immediately responded to the call with three armored humvees and around 15 soldiers. They arrived at the location of the contact to find even more insurgents and a large cache of weapons and ammunition. 2LT Hurley and his men engaged the insurgents killing two more and allowing the Tank to maneuver and kill one more insurgent. The area that the insurgents were displacing to was several hundred meters wide and a dozen homes. 2LT Hurley with a tank and three armored humvees still were not able to isolate and control the area. After a series of fire fights and a cat and mouse game, the battalion QRF (quick reaction force) was call out to help. The QRF arrived and killed one more insurgent and ended the fire fights. 1st PLT was relieved and returned to the FOB (forward operating base) with no casualties and knowing they had killed and helped kill 5 insurgents, wounded several, captured several, and captured a large quantity of ammunition and weapons.

The 10th of November was another day of bloody fire fights for 1st PLT and a tragic day for the company. In the early morning of the 10th, Private First Class Jordan was seriously wounded when his vehicle was hit with an IED (improvised explosive device) and turned over several times. PFC Jordan was a member of second platoon and was participating in a mission to retrieve battalion scouts from their hide position. 1st PLT led by 2LT Hurley and SFC Johnson again moved out of the FOB to patrol Route Michigan. They took up positions in the town of Modiq, a town about a mile east of the city of Khaladiya about 15 miles east of Fallujah, and was over watching a section of the route which historically has been used by insurgents to emplace IED's. SFC Johnson and two more vehicles were in the town when one vehicle from 2nd squad, SSG Deon's vehicle, was attacked by a group of about 5 RPG gunners. The barrage of grenades damaged SSG Deon's vehicle and knocked the vehicle's gunner unconscious. SSG Deon was forced to withdraw his vehicle out of fire and to the safety of the other two American vehicles. As SSG Deon's vehicle was being attacked, SFC Johnson's vehicle was also attacked by a group of about 5 RPG gunners. However SFC Johnson's vehicle was in a more defensive position and had the third vehicle, SSG Caddy's vehicle, to help them engage the insurgents. SFC Johnson easily gained fire superiority on the insurgents and even maneuvered on his and SSG Deon's attackers. 2LT Hurley immediately responded to SFC Johnson's call for reinforcements, and once arriving in the objective area, 2LT Hurley drove directly into the enemy's position. 2LT Hurley's bold maneuver completely caught the enemy off guard and caused the enemy to abandon their vehicles and machine guns. Also responding to the call for reinforcements was a M1 main battle tank. The tank arrived after 2LT Hurley and used its .50 cal machine gun to engage several insurgents. Again 2LT Hurley's platoon fought a series of running fire fights that led to no American casualties. Enemy losses were several enemy dead, wounded, captured personnel, and captured equipment to include a destroyed car bomb and a vehicle used as a transport vehicle. While 1st was fighting in the town of Modiq, 3rd PLT was call out to raid the Mosque in the same town. Higher had actionable Intel that a known terrorist had taken refuge in the Mosque in Modiq. 1st PLT had reported that insurgents were jumping the walls of the Mosque as they were fighting the running battles throughout the town. I arrived with 3PLT and immediately entered the Mosque and captured several insurgents about to escape by jumping the Mosque's wall. The whole compound was searched with special care given not to damage anything if possible. At the end of the search we found IED making materials and literature on how to create an insurgent cell and instructions on what to do if cell leaders were killed or captured. This insurgent propaganda was captured in the Imam's personal chambers hidden in normal Ramadan instructions. The Imam was not present, but we arrested the three insurgents who were attempting to jump the wall when we arrived, the Mosque's custodian and an insurgent who jumped the wall coming from the outside of the Mosque to inside the mosque. The insurgent who jumped the wall to get in tried to jump over it again to get out once he realized we were in the compound.

The 11th of November was the first day of 3rd PLT's two day cycle of route security. The battalion commander COL Clark had decided to preposition two platoons of combat power out in the far eastern sectors of the battalion's area of responsibility so that they would be in zone and more responsive to another day of fire fights. I had linked up with the company commander, CPT Davis of Alpha, of the company providing the extra two platoons of combat power. Then I linked up with SFC Stricklin and was briefed by SFC Stricklin on his plan to go back to the town of Modiq and set in an OP (observation post) in the market area of the town. From the OP, we would be able to see the more dangerous stretches of the route and also let the insurgents know that we were not going to be chased out of the town. Once we pulled into position in the market area, we stopped civilian traffic from passing us on the south side of the route and began to emplace our wire and to make sure we were utilizing what natural and man made cover we could find. As we were emplacing the wire, a group of Iraqi men approached SSG Janson and asked him to move his vehicle so that they could conduct some work on the rear of the building. SSG Janson informed SFC Stricklin, and SFC Stricklin informed me, and we all concluded that the men could easily gain access to the rear of the building by the many back streets. Once they were told no, we were not moving, the Iraqi men began to move across the highway and to argue with each other. Within seconds a civilian vehicle which had been following the natural flow of traffic at the last moment drastically pulled away from the flow of traffic and cut across the median towards SSG Janson's up-armored vehicle. The suicide car bomber prematurely detonated about 6 feet in front of the American vehicle. If the bomber had managed to detonate as he hit the vehicle he would have certainly caused even greater damage and casualties.

The suicide bomber attacked us just as SSG Janson was supervising the emplacement of concertina wire. The explosion caused the bomber's vehicle to disintegrate into thousands of tiny pieces. My vehicle was about 40 meters from the explosion and as 1LT Lambert and I ran to the explosion site to assess damage and to prepare who ever was not hurt for any follow on attacks, the pieces of the vehicle were still falling around us. It was raining little pieces of metal, and the air had a light haze of gun powder like smoke. My FSO, forward observer (an artillery officer assigned to my company), and I moved to the site of the explosion and quickly discovered that SFC Stricklin, even though he was seriously wounded with shrapnel to his right leg and to his arms and face, was actively readjusting the perimeter, getting a status of the wounded and preparing the men for follow on suicide bombers and a dismounted attack. Once I realized that the perimeter was secure, I turned my attention to the wounded. SFC Stricklin could tell me his status, and I could see that SSG Huey was mortally wounded. PFC Krebbs, the medic for 3rd PLT, was frantically working on SSG Huey. Within seconds of seeing SSG Huey I heard a voice yelling, "they are burning help me they are burning". The FSO and I ran to the other side of SSG Janson's vehicle and realized it was PFC Meeks, who was wounded himself with shrapnel to his face, who was yelling. He was struggling to get wire off of SSG Janson, SPC Neives, and PFC Barco. The FSO and I frantically began to pull the concertina wire off of the soldiers. It was very difficult because the wire was catching to their clothes and skin, but PFC Barco was on the bottom of the pile of men, and he was on fire. He was unconscious and not making a sound, which scared me to my core. I began to cry and pray out loud and to work as fast and careful as possible to get the wire untangled from the men. Once the wire was removed, we carefully moved SSG Janson, who had a back injury, off of SPC Nieves. Then we moved SPC Nieves off of PFC Barco and moved PFC Barco off of the still burning front wheel axle of the suicide bomber's vehicle. The arms of Barco's uniform were on fire, and we patted the fire out. SSG Janson was unable to sit up but he kept asking, "Is he alright, is he alright…?" Once the fire on Barco was put out, the company 1st Sergeant, 1SG Burgos, pulled up the company casualty evacuation vehicle. We knew that we immediately needed to get SSG Huey on a stretcher, in the vehicle, and to the forward surgical unit ASAP. SFC Stricklin was loaded onto the vehicle first, and he was placed on the bottom, and SSG Huey was placed on the top. The 1SG and I allowed SSG Huey's arm to hang over the side, and we told SFC Stricklin to hold SSG Huey's hand and to talk to him all the way to the hospital. The 1SG, with Doc Krebbs, took SFC Stricklin and SSG Huey to the Hospital. Alpha Company, hearing the explosion and the traffic on the radio, immediately moved to my position to provide any support that we needed. Alpha was on the OBJ within minutes. They helped with the other wounded and deployed mounted and dismounted patrols of the back streets of the town to interdict any enemy formations thinking of attacking while we were vulnerable extracting our wounded. CPT Davis arrived first and assisted me with reporting the situation and the facts of the engagement to the battalion. He also command and controlled the counter recon patrols and helped with the growing crowd of Iraqi people asking for permission to take their wounded to the hospital in Ramadi and to police up the dead civilians in the area to bury them before sundown. I saw an Iraqi boy between 6 and 8 years old lying in the Median. Once I saw the boy, I ran to him. My FSO was closer and saw me running to the boy and ran to the child also. The FSO arrived at the child before me. Once I arrived, I immediately began to search for a pulse at his jugular. As I searched the FSO told me, "Sir he is dead, I felt him take his last breath". I did not want to believe the FSO. I wanted that child to be alive. I wanted to save him. I wanted this nightmare to end. The boy was dead; the right side of his skull was completely crushed, and his little body was in a pool of blood twice the size of his body. I was in the middle of the highway where a suicide bomber had just killed one of my soldiers and wounded 6 more, and I knelt over this Iraqi boy and wept openly. An Iraqi man, the boy's Uncle came to me and picked up the child and took him away. CPT Sabat, the Company Commander for Delta Company, walked over to me without judging me or ordering me. He touched me on the shoulder and knelt next to me and said, "Will, come with me over to my vehicle, and you can call the Battalion Commander on the radio with a situation Report." CPT Sabat, a seasoned veteran who had seen everything there is to see in Iraq, reconnected me to reality and got me out of that dangerous road.

The next hour was spent interviewing the local Iraqi people to find out the identity of the men who had been trying to get SSG Janson to move his vehicle. We believed that the insurgents had, at the last minutes before the attack, told some of the locals of the impending attack. The locals tried to get us to move, not out of concern for us, but to get us out of the market area. The argument between the Iraqi men was probably between locals and the insurgents. The locals were telling the insurgents to wait until we left the town, but the insurgents must have won the argument.

We finished the interviews, reestablished security, and determined that we would stay on the scene until sundown to ensure no one would try and gather up and bury any of the suicide bomber's body parts. I understood that in the Moslem religion a person has to be buried with all his body parts and before sundown in order to go to heaven. We sat in over watch of the route and the suicide bomber's body until sundown. Several people attempted to pick up the suicide bomber's body, but we made them dump out the container back onto the ground and threatened to arrest them if they continued to disobey our instructions. We stayed until it was dark.

Sundown came, and the 1SG and I went straight to the forward surgical operating hospital to try to see SSG Huey and the other wounded before they were flown to Baghdad. COL Clark had already informed me that SSG Huey had died, but I wanted to see his body before he was flown out of the area. We arrived at the front gate of Camp TQ, which is operated by the Marines, and they are always particular about paperwork. I had no paperwork to enter TQ, it was not an emergency, and I was afraid the Marines would give me a hard time. The sergeant asked me for my convoy paperwork, and I told him one of my soldiers had been killed by a suicide car bomber earlier that day and I wanted to see his body before he was flown out of country. The Sergeant looked at me and must have been able to see that I was barely maintaining my composure and said, "Sure, Sir, and I'm sorry for your loss." The 1SG led the way to the hospital, which was just a cluster of tents, and found an admin person who informed us that SSG Huey had already been transported out of the area. We then found SFC Stricklin, who had surgery and was waking up. I sat on the right side of SFC Stricklin, 1SG Burgos sat on his left side and 1LT Lambert stood at the foot of his bunk. I spoke first and tried to say, "How are you, buddy?" without crying. SFC Stricklin looked at me and said, "Why SSG Huey? Why him? He was the best of all of us--he was my best friend." We shook our heads and just cried. We all were there in that small tent grieving for our friend, and for that one pure moment we were completely connected and united. The 1SG and I visited with our wounded and helped load some of them into the field ambulances to take them to the helicopters in order to take them to Baghdad. Little did I know that in less than 24 hours I would be back at that hospital as a wounded soldier.

At 0030 12 November, I met with 2LT Highley and other soldiers of 3rd PLT and attempted to give them words of encouragement. They were being asked to go right back to an area that was almost guaranteed to lead to trouble and possible casualties. However, the men did not need a "pep talk." They wanted pay back and wanted to let the insurgents know we would not be pushed out of any town in Iraq. The platoon began their route security mission on Route Michigan, and I joined them with CPT Cox (the company executive officer, XO) and my company mortar section. There were a total of 3 vehicles in the combat patrol I led out of Camp Manhattan that day. We called Delta Company to inform them that we were entering their battle space and would be setting in an OP at the town of Modiq. Upon arriving at the vicinity of Modiq, there was an IED strike on a combat patrol of 3rd PLT vehicles. My patrol immediately moved to the IED strike location in order to provide any assistance if necessary. 1LT Highley had the situation under control and was in the process of searching surrounding areas, persons and vehicles, attempting to find the individuals responsible for igniting the IED. The attacker was not found, the damaged vehicle was towed by another vehicle, and the American personnel in the damaged vehicle were cross loaded to all the vehicles on the mission. My patrol took two extra soldiers and integrated them into my OP in Modiq. As we moved back to Modiq, we stopped the patrol to talk to SSG Rodriquez, who had stopped to render assistance to Iraqi civilians involved in a car accident. SSG Rodriquez had taken over 3rd PLT from SFC Stricklin, who was seriously wounded the prior day. I briefed SSG Rodriquez on the plan for the OP and that I would be employing the two company snipers. Then we moved to Modiq and set in our OP. It took about 45 minutes to set into our defenses. To block off the side of the road our vehicles were parked, to set in the snipers, set in the XO with his vehicle and extra riflemen on a high piece of ground that could over watch the mortar vehicle and my vehicle, which were positioned in the village. We stayed in the town until we were relieved and thought that this might be the first day since the battle for Fallujah started that we would not have a serious contact. We were wrong. We had our wire and other obstacles broken down and were 90% ready to return to camp when a Delta company element reported contact in the city of Khaladiya. They were receiving fire from insurgents in a Mosque. This Mosque frequently was used by insurgents, and I knew the Mosque and radioed that 3rd PLT of Hard Rock Charlie Company would respond to the request for reinforcements. I talked to 1LT Highley and informed him that I wanted him to maneuver his platoon to the rear of the mosque and to isolate the area and to prevent the enemy from leaving. We began to move to the OBJ with 1LT Highley near the front of the patrol, SSG Rodriquez near the rear, and I was in the middle.

Enroute to the OBJ we were hit by a complex ambush. The ambush included one massive IED which was emplaced in front of the main Iraqi Police (IP) Station in Khaladiya. The station had been abandoned by the IP and allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy. The IED was massive but did not cause any damage to any vehicles and no casualties. It exploded about 75 meters after the vehicle to my front and 50 meters to the front of my vehicle. After the IED, we pulled to the IED side of the road and waited a few seconds before we dismounted our vehicles. Our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to immediately dismount and to go find the person or persons who triggered the IED. But this time I gave the order to stay mounted because this normally crowded and busy part of the city was completely deserted. It smelled like trouble, and I wanted to stay in our protected vehicles a while longer to assess the situation. Within seconds of our pulling over, there were about 5 smaller IED's on the left and right of where the larger IED had been. These smaller IED's were set to kill us when we dismounted, but because we did not, the IED's caused no injuries to my soldiers or damage to our vehicles. Immediately after the smaller IED's exploded, insurgents attacked with small arms and RPG fire. We dismounted and returned fire into the nearby buildings and almost immediately gained fire superiority and forced the insurgents to retreat from their positions. 1LT Lambert, my FSO, identified 4 insurgents, all carrying RPG launchers, running deeper into the city. The FSO and I maneuvered on the insurgents and attempted to get 3rd PLT to maneuver on the insurgents. The FSO quickly shot one, then another, of the 4 insurgents. I had negative contact with 1LT Highley, and SSG Rodriquez was at the rear of the formation and could not see the insurgents. But the men of 3rd PLT closest to me, about 100 meters, could see me. I determined that I would lead the soldiers to the enemy, so I gave the follow-me hand sign and continued to pursue the enemy. I saw two insurgents running. One ran to the right and then cut to the left and ran to a small alley until I shot him two times in the center of his back. He took three more steps, one long then two fast short steps, before he fell to the ground. The fourth insurgent made it to the alley. The FSO and I followed him, and as I made it to the entrance of the alley, I again gave the follow-me hand signal to the men of 3rd PLT. After giving the signal, I turned and began to clear the alley with the FSO. The FSO had made the turn into the alley first and began to clear the alley from the left hand side. I was clearing the right side. Parked in the middle of the alley was a tractor trailer which took all but a couple feet of space on the driver and passenger sides. The alley opened into a larger road, called 20 Meter road because it is 20 meters wide. At the opening were several large buildings with lots of spots for snipers or machine gun positions. Now, after the fact, I can see all the signs of an ambush, but at the time, all I could think about was getting 3rd PLT engaged with the enemy and killing the fourth RPG gunner.

1LT Lambert saw the 4th RPG gunner and yelled to me, "There he is," and pointed towards the tractor trailer. He said again, "There he is. He is crossing over to your side." I could hear the fear and sense of emergency in his voice. We had been chasing and killing them for 2 to 3 minutes by now, but they had been running from us. This one was in this alley, and he was not running any more. The insurgent was about 45 meters away, and he was crossing from my left to right between the cab and the trailer of the truck. I was afraid, and hearing the fear in 1LT Lambert's voice unsettled me a little more. I ran towards the insurgent and could see in my peripheral vision that 1LT Lambert was also running down the alley on his side. I had the insurgent in my sight picture and fired two quick shots. As soon as I fired my shots, my feet were knocked out from underneath me. I had no idea what had knocked me down but tried to get up and felt this terrible pain in both my legs and fell back down to the ground. I looked at my left leg and could see the bone sticking out of my boot. I was shot. I could not believe that I had been shot.

The enemy helped me come to the realization that I had been shot by firing another 6 to 8 round burst from his RPK (a Russian made light machine gun firing 7.62 round). I heard the firing and could see the strike of the rounds on the ground first to my left hand side. I looked up and saw the muzzle flash coming from the 3rd story window of a house on the north side of 20 Meter Road. I quickly fired into the window, but the insurgent only fired a third burst of rounds, and this time, the rounds landed above my head against the wall where I was lying. Again I could see the strike of the rounds as they hit the wall and walked closer to me. At that point, I knew if I stayed in that open alley, I was going to die. I had lost contact with 1LT Lambert, and the men of 3rd PLT still had not arrived. I yelled that I had been hit and began to crawl as fast as I could crawl out of the alley, heading to the corner of the wall to take cover. I had my rifle in my right hand, and using my hands and knees, I crawled as fast as I could for my life. As I crawled for cover, I was shot again, this time in my left buttock, but I don't remember it. I had so much adrenaline, or maybe it was the pain from dragging my left foot, but whatever it was, I did not feel the shot.

When I got to cover, the men of 3rd PLT were just arriving. They thought I had been shot from the direction behind me, and one even tried to take cover in the alley I had just been shot in. I quickly redirected their fire to the enemy machine gun position. I also informed them that 1LT Lambert was still down the alley and that I had lost contact with him. Once the enemy machine gun position was suppressed, I informed one of the soldiers that I had been wounded and instructed him to help me control the bleeding. SSG Rodriquez arrived and maneuvered a squad down the alley and called for another squad to move up to the alley. He also called for a couple of vehicles to move up to our position: one vehicle to use its mounted gun against the enemy and another vehicle to evacuate me to our battalion aid station. SSG Rodriquez also called for the platoon medic PFC Krebbs to move to our position for me. The vehicle that responded to evacuate me was my mortar section vehicle. PFC Krebbs jumped into the mortar vehicle and was at my position in seconds. As the vehicle arrived, SSG Rodriquez reached down, picked me up, and dragged me to the vehicle. He was yelling to the driver to take me straight to the aid station and not to stop for any reason. SSG Rodriquez was worried about me and had disregarded his own safety to evacuate me.

I had managed up to that time to remain calm and to continue to be in command of the situation. Enemy personnel were up ahead, and the last thing the men needed to see was their commander screaming and yelling about a wound. I wanted them to go down that alley, and I knew if I was screaming about my legs, which hurt so bad it made me want to scream, they would be less likely to want to make that turn down that alley. I could already see the fear in the faces of the first soldiers to arrive at the site, so I did not want to foster that fear any more then my presence there with my legs bleeding was already fostering. When SSG Rodriquez, a large man, picked me up and dragged me to the mortar vehicle, my foot was dangling and I was screaming. I lost all my cool points. SSG Rodriquez put me in the back between the two rear seats, and Doc Krebbs was in the seat behind the driver, holding both legs and immediately began to work on the left leg. He cut the boot off, sock off, and pants leg. He splinted the bones and then proceeded to work on the right leg gun shot wound. The driver obeyed SSG Rodriquez' instructions and did not stop until he arrived at the aid station. He hit sidewalks, bumps, and made every curve or turn at maximum speed. I was screaming almost the entire trip because my legs hurt so bad being tossed around in that vehicle. And the more I screamed, the faster and more reckless he drove. They yelled to me, "You are going to be OK, Sir". I tried to yell back, "I know, so please slow down." They never heard that and continued to think I was about to die and that they needed to get to the aid station as fast as humanly possible. Within 5 minutes, I was at the battalion aid station and having all my equipment and clothes cut off of me. The battalion surgeon and physician assistant removed the field splint and replaced it with a more stable splint, gave me morphine, and identified my wounds to my left buttock. It took about 5 minutes to stabilize me enough to send me to Camp TQ to the forward surgical operating hospital.

Once arriving at the forward surgical operating hospital at Camp TQ, I was interviewed en route to the operating room. I was given more morphine, and several people talked to me while I waited for the anesthesiologist to come to put me under. The doctor told me what he was going to do, and then the anesthesiologist arrived and told me what she was going to do. As she was explaining the effects of the drugs, the camp was attacked by either large mortars or rockets. The medical staff stopped long enough to put on their Kevlar and body armor, and then they were right back to work.

They operated on both legs. They cut open the wounds and power-washed them in order to wash out any dirt or debris. Iraq has bacteria that we have no antibiotics that can defeat them. The doctors also put an external fixator on my left leg that had a center rod with screws that went to the left and right sides of my ankle and two screws that went to my tibia and fibula. The bullet had completely shattered my tibia and fibula and even took away one inch of length from the left leg. From Camp TQ, I was flown to a hospital in Baghdad where I was made comfortable and held until there was air flow that would take me to Germany. After a day in Baghdad, I was flown to Germany, where they operated on both legs. First they power-washed both wounds, took X-rays of the left leg, and returned the external fixator to the left leg. My Germany stay was a little more than 3 days. In those 3 days I was treated wonderfully by so many groups that were there to support the troops. The 2ID liaison helped me get an identification card and used the 250 dollar voucher the PX/ BX gave me to buy me civilian clothes to wear to Walter Reed. The Chaplin gave me some clothes and just came by to provide me company every day I was there at the hospital. The Red Cross provided some books and good cheer.

On 18 November, I traveled to the US on a hospital plane, a C141 with over 100 casualties, complete with a doctor, nurses and medics. I arrived at Walter Reed around 0400 and immediately had X-rays done of my left leg and was prepped for surgery. Later that morning both legs were washed out again, and the external fixator was left on the left leg, but the right leg was sown up. I was at Walter Reed from 18 November to 24 November. On the 22nd I was operated on again, and this time the left leg had the external fixator removed and had two metal plates placed on the right and left sides of my leg. The plates connected the ankle to the tibia and fibula. The inch that I had lost was put back with the use of bone putty around the bones after they had been extended to their proper size.

It has been a tough convalescence so far, but not nearly as tough as some of the other injured soldiers have experienced. I am grateful for having the probable return to full capabilities, and the relative quickness of the healing so far. None of this would be possible without all the love and support my family and I have received from so many. My wife Suzanne and I are incredibly lucky to have been connected to so many people, from our neighbor Meg organizing dinners being brought to us, to so many folks giving us emotional and even financial gifts, having never met us. I still wake up from time to time, wondering if 1LT Lambert is okay, or remembering the soldiers who the company lost during that very intense week. We know that the physical recovery will take another dozen weeks or more, and the emotional recovery will be a long haul as well, but we would never be able to handle the long journey back to 'normal life' if it weren't for all the help we have received. We hope that if anyone ever needs us in the future, they will realize we are here with a little help from our friends. We look forward to be the ones to help once we are all 'on our feet' figuratively and literally!