Dispensing inspiration from their beds

Lt. Gen. Kenneth Hunzeker, commander of V Corps, visits with Sgt. Kenneth Towne, a Marine from the 2nd Intelligence Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Hunzeker, who has made numerous visits to the hospital, said during this visit that the attitude of the wounded warriors here always picks up his morale. Towne was sent to LRMC from Iraq after complications occurred from an appendectomy.


Dispensing inspiration from their beds
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, November 6, 2007


LANDSTUHL, Germany — After the bomb hit, after the confusion, despite the pain, when he realized he was going to live, Spc. Sean Staggs laughed.

I was laughing, and then I was cursing at the Iraqis,” Staggs said from his hospital bed at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. “We all realized we were all right.”

Staggs was one of four soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment wounded when a roadside bomb hit their Stryker on Oct. 21 in Baghdad. Five others in the Stryker escaped unscathed.

Staggs, like two others riding in the Stryker and now at the hospital, had undergone surgery for broken bones in his ankle — a consequence of the power of the blast. Surgeons had put in pins to stabilize the bones and reduce healing time, and after some weeks of recuperation, Staggs was expected to be sent back to Iraq.

Which was fine with him.

“I definitely want to go back,” he said. “My team’s still there.”


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50061