8 APRIL 1,2013
Smoke Signals
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WAR continued
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as suppressing the dictator who
"cleared the dates and palm trees
and what we know as the Garden of
Kden in southern Iraq where the Ti
gris and Euphrates rivers joined,"
Hostler said. "So people had to rely
on him, the state; so he had them;
women couldn't drive or work.
"I know what it is to be sup
pressed; what it is to rub dinars
together to feed the family; and so it
wasn't OK to kill people with illegal
gases and experiment on them. The
Shiites and Sunnis have been duk
ing it out for thousands of years,
but my understanding of God is a
loving and compassionate god, not
about blowing people up."
Both men received injuries that
have left them disabled, but both
are anxious to continue working.
They need a lot of health care,"
said Elder and Navy veteran Gene
LaBonte, referring to Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans in general.
LaBonte was named chair of the
Governor's Veterans' Advisory
Committee in 2009.
One of the obstacles to getting
that care, LaBonte added, is that,
"When they come back from Iraq,
they get back to the states and
meet with military people here and
instead of going to a hospital right
away, or saying there's anything
wrong, they say nothing so they can
visit their families first."
"There is a lot suffering from
PTSD (post-traumatic stress dis
order) and TBI (traumatic brain
injury)," said Jerry Wilson, Yamhill
County Veterans Service Officer.
"Usually guys that had TBI suffer
from memory loss, headaches, a
lack of concentration, and it is re
ally horrible because they forget to
go to appointments, or how to go
places. It affects the brain really
bad. The most common side effects
are increased headaches, head
aches that don't want to go away.
"One of the most sorrowful things
I've seen is when you look in their
eyes and their eyes are really
glassy. They're here, but they're
not here. They say, 'What am I
doing here?' And I say, 'How can I
help you?' They don't have a clue.
They say, 'Somebody told me I had
to come here.'
"You try to dig out that informa
tion from them, but one thing about
those guys, they are very, very
guarded about their information."
For Quenelle, some or maybe
most of his disabilities come from
the last time he survived an im
provised explosive device. Quenelle
served with the Scouts, the 3-1 16th
Cavalry Brigade out of eastern
Oregon.
"I remember clear as day, the date
was the 22nd of August, 2005," he
said. His group included five Hum
vee gun trucks and one interpreter.
He was driving the lead vehicle.
They saw a flare go up in a nearby
"mud hut village" and soon received
radio communication from up the
chain of command that there was
a possible high value target ahead.
They moved onto the main supply
route.
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Or!
3
o
Contributed photo
Frank Quenelle stands in front of his Humvit after it hit an improvised explosive device in 2005.
"We were approximately a mile
away from our objective when we
came across a patch of road that
was prone to recent I ED activity,"
he said. "As we came to a certain
spot in the road where a previ
ous I ED had went off in the past
weeks, my TC (truck commander)
had ordered me, and he was very
firm about it at the last second, to
veer left.
"I jerked our steering wheel with
pretty good force to steer us in the
direction I was ordered, and less
than a second later the right side
of our vehicle was struck by the
blast." (Later, he was informed
what kind of IED it was three
155mm rounds.)
The official report credited
Quenelle's quick action with saving
the lives of his fellow soldiers.
Two of the three rounds went off
and the third round was thrown
from the hole and found about 250
feet away in a field.
"After the IED struck us, the
right front of my vehicle was utterly
destroyed," he said. "Both passenger-side
doors were partially hang
ing from the hinges and shrapnel
blasted across the whole right side
of the vehicle as well as the major
ity of the windshield."
The blast sent the five-ton vehicle
sliding "for about 1,000 to 1,200 feet
at about 60 miles an hour doing a
180 until we came to a stop."
The blast lifted the vehicle off the
ground and when it came slamming
back down, the back right wheel
broke off.
"I remember my vision not com
ing back for about 10 seconds. Then
I blinked, and my vision was there
again."
Everything turned very quiet.
"Shrapnel had cut across my left
elbow," he said. "My ears were ring- .
ing. It was hard to hear."
Then he stepped out of the Hum
vee. "At first my legs wouldn't work
and I fell onto the left side of my
body."
The vehicle's radios and even a
"man pack" radio in the back of the
vehicle were inoperable.
When the rest of the convoy
caught up, they set up a security
perimeter and "lit up the reed line
(the bushes) with bullets in case
V I) h :l Ps i
I ( r r& : i ft
. ; Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Specialist Frank Quenelle, once a .50 caliber GunnerDriver with the 3-1 16th
Calvary Brigade, back home in Grand Ronde.
somebody was hiding."
For Hostler, the main source of
his continuing injuries came from
an incident on Jan. 20, 2010. Hos
tler served as an engineer sapper.
He worked with mines, explosives,
route clearance, disarming andor
blowing up weapons, offensive and
defensive, he said.
He was in Baghdad and had just
come back from a mission when he
was given authorization to start
building an awning. As squad
leader, he had many projects going.
He had interviewed people to work
on the awning, but when he came
back there were different people
up on the awning that was 120
feet long, 30 feet wide and about
30 feet tall.
"I climbed up on the awning," he
said. "I remember wondering why
these people were up there. When
I climbed up, they started lobbing
mortars at me. I started to run. The
whole awning caved in on me. I had
bones in my spine broken in half.
I had metal run through my hand
and my foot. Local civilians they
were there from all over, but these
were Hindus from India - pulled
me out of it. I was a hurtin' puppy.
I limped around for a couple days,
then started getting headaches."
The Army flew him to Germany
and then to Walter Reed Army
Medical Clinic in Washington, D.C.
He had three operations during
that time.
Hostler also participated in the
firefight that killed two of Saddam
Hussein's sons.
"It was very intense. We traded
fire for eight hours," he said. "We
had to blow some walls up."
Throughout the war, Hostler
found the Iraqi people to have much
in common with Native American
communities in the states.
"They're common people like you
and me," he said, "trying to feed
their family and have an education.
They're just trying to make it."
See WAR
continued on page 9