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Aug. 19, 2011
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did - but had done other stories with the
military, including getting to know them in
places like Kosovo. So I hadn’t spent long
periods of time. But I think,, like most
reporters, embedding is something that
became much mòre prevalent in Iraq and
Afghanistan than i t ever had before.
R.R.: Had you had any personal interactions
with military service people? W anyone in
your family ever in the military?
B.W.: Yeah, my grandfather was: the Coast
Guard, back in World War I. And my father
was in the army in the Korean War.
R.R.: So, I feel almost crass asking questions
about whdt happened to you on Jan. 29, 2006.
B.W.: Yeah.Jan. 29, 2 0 0 6 .1 was actually
with the 4th Infantry, up' in Taji, which js
north of Baghdad. And we were out, to see
how the U.S. military was passing more
control and power to the Iraqi military. Me
and my team, we decided,to ride along in an
Iraqi tank and see how they operated* And
that started a change in our lives.
R.R.: Do you have any memories of the
explosion? A t all?
B.W.: You know, it’s hard to (he chuckles)
define “remember,” “memories.” I do
remember sort of instantly going out. And I
do know one other thing: When I woke up, I
still rem ember what I saw when I opened my
eyes — I was out for a minute — I looked up
and I saiy that one of my teammates was
bleeding out of his face. And I asked, “Am I
alive?” and they said, “Yes.” That’s the last
thing I remember.
R.R.: And when you came back to
consciousness, where were you?
B.W ..Ì was in Bethesda Naval Hospital. . I
had been unconscious for 36 days.
R.R.: I had (i frie n d who was ill in the
hospital for two days and lost consciousness,
and (she) went through this Ìrìstancè o f trying
to recall what happened those two days. So I ’m
going to ask you: How was it for you to — well,
not lp have lost, but have been unconscious for
36 days of your life?
B.W.: (Laughs:) Well, during those 36
days, I don’t have any memory of i t at all, so
it was perfectly fine’ And painless. I had'nq
nightmares. Nothing like that.
Like most of us, when we emerge out of an
event like that, depending on how bad you
are, you’re pretty lucky to be alive. I know
that’s true for almost everybody that Tye
met. But then over time you start to realize
how much you’ve chànged, and how life could
be when you’d be able to predict what your
future’s going to be like. And I think for the
ones who’ve been injured in these wars —
again, in how extensive and how bad your
injury is — you certainly go into moments of
depression and frustration. It depends on
what happens to you. And a lot of it depends
on who you’ve got around you.,as well. Those
with very strong families are able to recover
a little bit more, at least in the beginning.
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have been emerging because of these wars.
R.R.: How soon after your recovery began did
you start interacting with other people who had
brain-related trauma?
R.R.: Since your injury there, how many
times have you been back to Iraq?
B.W.: Well, certainly the ones there in
Bethesda Naval, when I was there. And then
of course, a lot of speech therapists, physical
therapists. They’re not the ones with the
injuries, but they’re the ones who are very
knowledgeable about it. I did hook up with a
traumatic brain injury world, when .I went to
meetings. And when I did a story for ABC, I
met a lot of people with very similar
problems.
B.W.: Just once. I was trying to get to *
Balad (a city roughly 50 miles north of
Baghdad) a year and a half ago. Mostly my
wife does not want me to go to wars
anymore. I don’t blame her. But there was a
dust storm, so I couldn’t get that far. So we
landed in Mosul and had to turn out right
away and head over to Afghanistan, which
was going to be our second stop anyway. But
I did not get back to Balad, and I wanted to
go thank the medics, doctors and nurses who
saved my life there. But I did see the ones in
both Kabul and Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Basically all of that shifted from Iraq to
Afghanistan: Not only the troops have moved
in there, but so have the doctors, the nurses,
the medics and everyone else. That’s the
new war.
R.R.: In a way, you’re aligned with a unique
group-of people, in that your injury occurred
when you were embedded with the military. So
what have people in the military who have
brain injuries taught
you about living with
this injury?
an interesting thing
"People are welcomed back
B.W.: Taught me? I
because I think we
as heroes, but the different
don’t know. There’s
largely associate
about 1,5 million
kinds of Injuries that exist
homelessness with
people in our country
the veterans who
make it difficult for them to
that get brain injury,
have come out of
get
hired;
(and)
there
is
a
so there’s certainly
Vietnam. That was a
plenty to go around.
huge problem with the
different kind of
But I know there have economy —- a ll of which is
homelessness in the
been estimates
sense that the
causing homelessness.
coming out of the
economy was fairly
wars that well over
decent back during
300,000 have gotten
that time, in the late
some kind of brain
60s, early 1970s,
injury in Iraq and Afghanistan. You’re talking
compared to now: So it Was not so much thé
about long-term recovery for brain injury,
economy that caused that, but it was more
which didn’t really exist at the same level in
rejection of people when they did return
previous wars: There was not so much IEDs,
home.
but powerful bombs dropped from jets, the f
Now it’s the opposite. People are
planes from above. The bullets, they’re flying
welcomed back as heroes, buTthe different
horizontally: Either they’d kill you or let you
kinds of injuriés that exist make it difficult
live, likely not (with) brain injury problems.
for them to get hired; (and) there is a huge
But now because of IEDs, you’ve got a lot
problem with the economy — all of which is
of people, some of them with very obvious,
causing homelessness. So it’s changed.
physical injuries and some of them with
Homelessness: It’s happening more when
■ m visibphQne s th a t a re cau sed by t h e * 1 *
pressure of the blast and not so much rocks
piercing through the skull. So it’s not so
much what they taught me: It’s that they
taught therapists and family members,
because there’s been so many people.
R.R.: When did it occur to you to start your
foundation?
B.W.: This was largely started by my wife,
Lee, and my three brothers, that moment
that I woke up and they all realized that I was
going to speak and was going to live. With
them in Bethesda Naval with floors filled
with those with similar injuries to what I had,
just knowing that they had the ability to try
to help (the injurfed) to get as much
treatment and community support as I was
getting: They were so moved by it and felt
obligated to begin this. I was still somewhat
unconscious. I was awake, but still very
confused. Andthey absolutely launched into
it and were never going to let it go.
R.R.: Ndw you’re talking about homeless
vets.
B.W.: You know, homeless vêts is kind of
Canning jars &
equipment,
cookware, kitchen
took & appliances
Organic cotton
sheets, towek,
& blankets
Food dryers
Juicers
Books on meat-free
cooking, gardening
& sustainability
th ey Gomé back, as o p p o sé d to V æ t n a m / ^
when that was largely five, and 10 years a fte r
the war Was Over that they become
homeless. And sometimes, mental problems
would emerge because their lives were so
completely changed, not so much by the
deployment and what they went through in
the war, but when they got off the plane,
they were spat upon.
R.R.: What can we do to help homeless vets?
B.W.: Jobs, jobs, jobs are the biggest
thing. Find ’em a job and they’ll be a lot
better off.
\
Obviously, there’s sqme psychological help
that needs to (happen) for a lot of people.
We’ve got multiple deployments now. I’ve
met some on their fourth, fifth deployment
Some with Special Ops are on their ninth
deployment. We’ve got a very small number
of people serving in this war because it’s
voluntary; it’s not a draft. So yeah; when they
come back — the numbers of suicides are
going up, divorce is going up, the amount of
depression for veterans is much greater than
it is for those who are not veterans. So, yes,
there are obviously mental problems that
R.R.: I t’s the new war. And do vets who were
in Iraq have a different experience when they
come back than vets who were in Afghanistan?
B.W.: Sure. Afghanistan is a much more
rural country and Iraq is an urban country.
So there’s a different way that it looks and
feels. And Afghanistan of course is much
larger, so there’s a lot of violence that shifts
from one place to another. But the other
thing is that the kinds of IED explosions are
different and the injuries, therefore, in
Afghanistan are different than they were in
Iraq.
•
See, there are a whole lot of (injuries)
because there isstep-up in foot patrols in
Afghanistan. People are getting out of the
tanks and Humvees and the MRAPs (Mine
Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles).
They’re getting out of those to walk ¿round,
wanting to try to win over the trust from the
people, but also because there’s not that
much going on on the road. They have to get
off the road: Therefore, there’s m ore' ;
stepping on the IED, which means that the
explosion is goingyertically up, as opposed
to diagonally or 45 degrees, like it was with
me, from the side, off the road. So that’s
changed the kinds of injuries. You see a lot
more double amputees, triple amputees than
you had in Iraq. And those are really
upsetting.
R.R.: There’s a panel after your talk that you
give. What do you hope will come out of this
event?
B.W.: It’s always great to hear from
people. I’m especially interested in hearing
what people know and what people have
seen, because probably those that have
served are in neighborhoods where people
don’t know where they are or who they are.
So it’s great when people have friends and
they tell how they’re handling it and how
they’re doing it: how proud they are, how
discouraged they are. There’s all sorts of
feelings about those that come back, so it’s
goodto have those conversations.
Originally published by Real Change News,
Seattle, Wash.