2006 VFW Magazine - Veterans of Foreign Wars

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youngvetsinfocus Inspiring Others: Triple Amputees Four veterans from the Iraq War are making the most of what many Americans would consider a severe setback. by Janie Blankenship Army Sgt. Joey Bozik met the love of his life via e-mail while he was living in North Carolina and she was attending college at Texas A&M University. He left for war and she continued her studies. Along the way the two planned to marry and build a life together. Oct. 27, 2004, could have changed the direction Bozik’s life was headed. While he was serving with the Army’s 118th Military Police Company, Bozik’s Humvee struck a roadside bomb in Iraq. He doesn’t remember anything until he woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., surrounded by family. He asked to be alone with his fiancée, Jayme Peters, and told her there would be no hard feelings if she wanted to walk away. Just weeks later, Bozik wheeled himself to the hospital chapel where he and Peters were married. Losing both legs and his right arm, Bozik is one of four triple amputees from the Iraq War, according to a Walter Reed spokesman. “Even knowing I would lose three limbs, I would sign up again,” Bozik, 26, told Time.“After Sept. 11, 2001, I remember thinking, ‘My God, they [terrorists] could put something in the water and kill a million people.’ That’s a fear I never want my family to have to feel again.” ‘Get Me Home to Nikki’ On Sept. 11, 2004, Senior Airman Brian Kolfage, Jr., was headed to the morale center at Balad, Iraq, for a soda when a mortar hit the base camp. He recalls lying on a pile of rocks and looking around to see bloody body parts everywhere. His tent mate, Senior Airman Valentin Cortez, tried to shield him from the carnage. “He looked at me,” Cortez told Air Jayme and Joey Bozik, a triple amputee, were married in December 2004 in the chapel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Force Times, “and in a calm and collected voice, he said, ‘Man, I already know. Just get me home to Nikki.’” Nikki turned out to be Kolfage’s girlfriend from Fort Sam Houston, Texas. When he awoke at Walter Reed, missing both legs and his right hand, she was at his side. Not long after that, the two were married in a private ceremony. Assigned to the 17th Security Forces Squadron at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Kolfage, 23, would have lost his left hand had it not been for his watch, which stopped the shrapnel. “This is really not that bad,” an upbeat Kolfage told Scripps Howard News Service. “You just have to learn to do everything all over again. Soldier Becomes U.S. Citizen On June 10, 2003, Army Spc. Hilario Bermanis was manning a weapons turn-in PATRIC SCHNEIDER / BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION EAGLE point in Baghdad when he came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades. In a split second, a fellow soldier was killed and Bermanis lost both legs and his left hand. A native of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, Bermanis was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division. On Sept. 17, 2003, Bermanis took the oath of U.S. citizenship from his hospital bed in Walter Reed. He is now back home in Pohnpei with his parents and younger brother. ‘Whatever It Takes’ The most recent triple amputee is 24- year-old Army Spc. Bryan Anderson of Rolling Meadows, Ill. His vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Oct. 23, 2005, during his second tour in Iraq. “I was conscious the whole time,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “If one of my friends hadn’t applied a tourniquet as well as he did, I wouldn’t have made it. He lost both legs and his left arm to shrapnel. His right hand was mangled, and he suffered abdominal injuries and a collapsed lung. Serving with the 411th Military Police Company, Anderson lost four of his Army friends in Iraq and seven were wounded. “The only reason we are there is to help little kids, but it is hard to stay motivated when you see friends in your unit getting hurt,” he told the Rolling Meadows Review. “That is what keeps us all good over there—friends and helping people—but it is like fighting ghosts.” He plans to return to his job at American Airlines. “I see how the guys [in rehab] walk and I want to do whatever it takes,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t feel like doing things, but I’m going to make myself.” ✪ 26 • WWW.VFW.ORG • © 2006 VFW Magazine
VFWin action VFW members and Posts demonstrating community service. VFW Posts Exude Generosity to Latest Generation of Vets From care packages to financial assistance in buying homes, VFW is all about troop support. On Feb. 13, 2004, just two hours after his daughter was born, Marine Dustin Howell left for California where he would leave the following day for Iraq. Little did he know those two hours would be the most precious, and that it would be the first and last time Howell would actually see his little Amy Jo. After a few months in Iraq, he was blinded from a roadside bomb. His left eye was blown out of its socket and his right eye was damaged beyond repair. More than 35 surgeries later on his injured hands and legs, Howell is back home in Wayland, Mich., where he is preparing to start a new life with his family. He hopes to get a home in the country in which he and her mother, June, can raise Amy Jo. Members of Post 7581 decided to step in and offer support to the young couple. A benefit was held at the Post on Sept. 24, 2005. They far surpassed their $10,000 goal, bringing in $30,000. “I can’t believe they did this for me,” Howell told the Grand Rapids Press.“It’s unbelievable.” Post Provides $102,000 Donation In DuPage, Ill., members of Post 2164 helped a vet at Hines VA Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. Joel Gomez is paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own due to a serious accident in Iraq on March 17, 2004. Serving with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, Gomez was injured when the vehicle he was riding in plunged into the Tigris River. By the following October, he was able to move back into the basement apartment where he had grown up. The only way in or out was up and down a grassy slope. The West Suburban Foundation for Disabled Veterans was created in February 2005 in response to Gomez’s situation. VFW members got on board and raised $102,000 toward the construction of a handicapped-accessible home for the young vet. It is complete with a Members of the 1st Infantry Division visit with Iraq veteran Joel Gomez in his new home. Post 2164 in DuPage, Ill., provided $102,000 toward the construction of a voice-activated home for the paralyzed veteran. voice-activated system. The entire community turned out in support, and one individual even purchased an accessible van for Gomez, who is now a proud member of Post 2164. “When I met Joel for the first time, he saw that I was in the 1st Division,” said Wayne Milligan, Post commander and Vietnam vet. “We’re kind of brothers 30 years apart.” Marine Cpl. Eddie Ryan of Ellenville, N.Y., suffered brain damage when he was shot in the head on April 13, 2005, in Iraq. His mobility is now limited to a wheelchair, which can’t be maneuvered in his family’s small ranch home. It will take an estimated $90,000 to get the Ryan home handicapped-accessible. To assist, Post 8959 in Kerhonkson, N.Y,. donated $5,000 to the Eddie Ryan Fund. Ryan is in therapy at Helen Hayes Hospital in Rockland County. ‘We Have to Do Something’ GIs from York, N.Y., are taken care of when they go overseas. Members of Post 634 keep tabs on those from their community serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Care packages are sent to them, and on occasion, thank-you notes come back to the Post. According to Joe Vogel, Post chaplain, Army Master Sgt. Tracy Semmel met with Post members when he returned from Iraq. He presented the members with an Operation Iraqi Freedom flag. “That flag will be shown to as many groups in the area as possible,”Vogel said.“And you can be sure that we will continue our care package program as long as there are Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Also supporting the troops with care packages and family help is Post 2791 in Tinley Park, Ill. The Post maintains a Military Family Support Center. “Last year, I saw a photograph of a soldier with no legs in VFW magazine,” Rich Wahlberg, Post service officer, said. “I said to my wife, ‘We have to do something.’” Since that time, the group has raised $20,000 in cash and donations. More than 200 care packages have been sent to approximately 30 service members from the community serving overseas. “We want these people to come home knowing we cared,” Wahlberg said. “I don’t want them to come home to what we did after Vietnam.” ✪ © 2006 VFW Magazine • WWW.VFW.ORG • 27
Page 2 and 3: contents SPECIAL ISSUE All the majo
Page 4 and 5: mailcall Young Vets in the Limeligh
Page 6 and 7: issuesupfront Succeeding in the Civ
Page 8 and 9: washingtonwire News from VFW’s Wa
Page 10 and 11: ‘Just Don’t Forget Me’ Societ
Page 12 and 13: New generation subjected to ‘Wack
Page 14 and 15: Student Veterans Battle Financial H
Page 16 and 17: Caring for the Wounded in the Long
Page 18 and 19: funded by the Intrepid Fallen Heroe
Page 20 and 21: Society’s Obligation to War Veter
Page 22 and 23: State Benefits for National Guard a
Page 24 and 25: Recognizing and Remembering Today
Page 28 and 29: soundoff Views of VFW readers on to
Page 30 and 31: VFW Magazine’s Coverage of the Wa

2006 VFW Magazine - Veterans of Foreign Wars

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