In Boston blasts, veterans shift into combat mode

In Boston blasts, veterans shift into combat mode
Washington Post
By Vernon Loeb
Published: April 17, 2013

When the bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, Brennan Mullaney and Eusebio Collazo were together on the course at mile 25.

Mullaney, now a captain in the Army Reserve, served 15 months during the “surge” in Iraq. Collazo of Humble, Tex., a former Marine corporal, was wounded in Iraq’s Anbar province by mortar shrapnel and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

They were approaching Boylston Street as members of a national nonprofit group that promotes healing among veterans, Team Red, White and Blue. And then suddenly the tables turned, and they found themselves helping to heal and comfort a city that had never experienced a roadside bomb.

“The real crazy symbolism here is that this was essentially an IED, an improvised explosive device,” said Army Maj. Mike Erwin, who founded the team in 2010 to help veterans heal and re-integrate into their communities through running and other physical activities. “What runners and the community experienced in Boston is the exact same thing that hundreds of thousands of service members have experienced since 2002, when they started using IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

As smoke wafted across Boylston Street and maimed marathon spectators lay across a bloody sidewalk, one veteran, an Army colonel and runner, shifted into combat mode as he crossed the finish line. He turned back into the chaos, peeled off his Team Red, White & Blue T-shirt and tied it as a tourniquet on the limb of a bombing victim.

A combat veteran who served in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart, the colonel later refused to allow a team spokesman to release his name after snippets of his actions were caught on video.

Turning T-shirts into tourniquets is not something most spectators along the marathon course would have had much experience with. “When we’re deployed, we all carry tourniquets — nice ones,” said Mullaney, 30, of Cumberland, Md., now a graduate student at Tufts University.

“When you see missing limbs, the first thing all of us know is to tie a tourniquet.”
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Amputee Combat Medic relives it everyday on purpose

When I first posted this story all I could do was put WOW for the twitter feed. Now he is even more amazing than I thought he was. Watch the news report and know how incredible REdmond Ramos is.PTSD-Amputee-Combat Medic Afghanistan veteran helps troops train

Amputee veteran says reliving IED explosions in training exercises eases his PTSD
10 News
Michael Chen

SAN DIEGO - An amputee veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder is playing a major role in military training drills by reliving the trauma of his own injuries.

Through makeup and Hollywood special effects, the horrors of war are revealed in graphic detail and loud explosions during a training exercise at Stu Segall Productions.

Redmond Ramos is in the middle of the action and he is exactly where he wants to be.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing to relive it," he said.

Two years ago and three months into his first deployment to Afghanistan, Ramos – a Navy combat medic based at Camp Pendleton – stepped on an improvised explosive device, or IED.

"I just heard firecrackers and this big noise," said Ramos.

Months later, his leg had to be amputated.

He was medically retired and diagnosed with PTSD. Noises made him anxious, but he says the symptom subsided after a few months.

When he heard about the realistic training offered by Strategic Operations to help new Navy medics, he asked for a job.
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Military blames everyone and everything for suicides

Military blames everyone and everything for suicides
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 6, 2013

First let this sink in for a moment.

"Between November 2011 and October 2012, there were more than 15,000 IED attacks against U.S. service members"

Now, some want to point their finger at the blast itself, but fail to notice the most important factor of what the blast does. It kills. It blows up bodies. It hides in the road. They can't see it coming. They don't know where they are. They cannot shoot at it, fight it or avoid them 100% of the time. While average people get hit by PTSD after traumatic events, and most understand that, the military fails to connect the event to the result.

TBI is not PTSD but the event that causes TBI can also cause PTSD. The military and "experts" have been alluding to reports of NFL players TBI and suicides but fail to acknowledge that getting hurt is part of the job and how they get hurt is when they are tackled by other players with only one mission. Taking them down. It is a violent sport just like boxing is. Yes, their brains get bashed into their scull by opponents trying to take them down and yes, some have TBI as the result. Still this is far from a "new theory" and I wish reporters would finally do some research to know the truth.

I suggest you read this for the numbers alone and then what else I have to say will make more sense.

Are brain injuries from IED blasts causing the military suicide crisis?
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Traumatic brain injuries sustained by more than 200,000 U.S. troops during combat explosions may be fueling the military’s suicide crisis, according to a letter co-signed by 53 congressional members who are seeking additional data to investigate the new theory.

In the letter, sent Tuesday to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the lawmakers urged both agencies to provide Congress with a raft of figures, including the number of Iraq and Afghanistan service members and veterans who committed suicide or tried to end their lives after being brain injured by the detonation of an improvised explosive device — “the weapon of choice” in both wars.

“Evidence has suggested that blast injuries, including but not limited to those causing damage to vision or hearing, can have a severe psychological impact ... that can play a major contributing role in suicides,” read the bi-partisan letter.

Between November 2011 and October 2012, there were more than 15,000 IED attacks against U.S. service members in Afghanistan, and 58 percent of all coalition casualties during that span were caused by the hidden bombs, the letter states.
read more here

From 2007
Trends in Treatment of America’s Wounded Warriors

These are from 2008
One in five soldiers get concussion
Study: PTSD, not brain injury, may cause vets' symptoms
Finally common sense on TBI-PTSD link

These are from 2009
A Chance for Clues to Brain Injury in Combat Blasts
Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts
There are more but you get the idea now. None of this is new! The military keeps hoping they will find the answer that points to anything but what they have gotten wrong all these years. RESILIENCE TRAINING AND CLAIMS OF SUPPORTING THEM TO GO FOR HELP ARE NOT WORKING!

I talk to families all the time and they are dealing with the suicide of someone they thought came home safe from combat. What the DOD thinks they got right is wrong and nothing will change the outcome unless they finally see what is right under their nose!

Quadruple amputee Staff Sgt. Travis Mills focus of new documentary

Documentary on Vassar soldier Travis Mills filming in Texas, aims to highlight life after loss of limbs
MLive Michigan
By Jessica Fleischman
March 02, 2013

VASSAR, MI — Vassar's local hero, Travis Mills, has been getting attention and support from plenty of sources since April 2012, when he was injured by an IED while stationed in Afghanistan, losing all four of his limbs.

One of those sources was a filmmaker interested in telling the story of the army staff sergeant, who is one of only five military personnel members to survive the loss of both arms and legs during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

'Travis: A Soldier's Story,' is currently filming in Dallas, Texas, where Mills and his wife Kelsey have traveled to work with Fotolanthropy.com filmmaker Katie Norris, who is producing a documentary short focusing on Mills' wounds, his recovery, and his family life.
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Quadruple amputee Staff Sgt. Travis Mills gets hero's welome home

Jacksonville firefighters charity helps native son following Afghanistan injuries

Jacksonville firefighters charity helps native son following Afghanistan injuries
'He was spared by God and has all his limbs,' says Josh Gillette's dad.
Jacksonville.com
Florida Times Union
by Dan Scanlan
Posted: February 27, 2013

Josh Gillette might not be able to make it to Friday’s luncheon in his honor.

Jacksonville native Josh Gillette, 32, is recovering from an explosion in Afghanistan. He attended Englewood and Wolfson high schools and was part of their JROTC programs

But as the Jacksonville native continues therapy at Walter Reed Medical Center for major injuries suffered in Afghanistan, people who don’t know him will be helping his future.

Funds raised at the 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the Jacksonville Fire Fighter Hall at 618 Stockton St. will go to his family from the Jacksonville Fire Fighter Charities. The bills have racked up from Gillette’s and his wife’s trips from their Tennessee home to Walter Reed for therapy, said his father, David Gillette.

“I prayed and prayed for God to provide for my son and daughter-in-law and every time I turn around, someone is wanting to help,” Gillette said from his Jacksonville home.

Fundraising site The website The War Hero was set up by Shain Gillette to help cover the costs his brother’s family is incurring in recuperating from his injuries.

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SPC. Brenden Salazar remembered by huge crowd in Oviedo FL

Today in Oviedo Florida at Hagerty High School, a plaque was dedicated to a former student and fallen hero, SPC. Brenden Salazar. He was killed in Afghanistan on July 22, 2012.

This was taken from the video I was shooting of the dedication. While the video should be online tomorrow, when I saw this image of the saluting shadow over Brenden's picture, it was almost as if his spirit was saluting back at all the people gathered together.

Army Specialist Brenden Salazar was killed while serving in Afghanistan on July 22, 2012. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173 Airborne Brigade Combat Team Caserma Ederle Italy. He was 20 years old.

Medevac crews in Afghanistan increase en-route patient care

Medevac crews in Afghanistan increase en-route patient care
January 4, 2013
US Army
By Capt. Richard Barker

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Jan. 4, 2013) -- During the course of the last several months, two Medevac companies in Task Force Hammerhead, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, and Company C, 1st Battalion, 169th Aviation Regiment, Army National Guard, have participated in a trial program developed by the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, or CAB, that enables flight medics to administer blood products to wounded Soldiers during the Soldiers' en-route flight care and movement to a medical facility.

The 3-25th General Support Aviation Battalion, 25th CAB, is the first conventional Medevac unit anywhere in the Army to conduct this mission.

"Specifically we implemented a new blood transfusion process for critically-injured patients on Medevac aircraft," said Capt. Nathaniel Bastian, a Forward Support Medevac platoon leader of C, 3-25.

As of December 2012, 80 medical patients have received blood products through the program, which is currently operating at five locations in southern Afghanistan.

More than 60 percent of casualties in Regional Command-South, known as RC-South, are caused by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, and gunshot wounds. These types of injuries cause patients to lose a large amount of blood. As a result, the patient's chances of survival are increased by an immediate replenishment of blood plasma and red blood cells prior to their arrival at the next level of medical treatment.
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Soldier from Ocala Florida killed in Afghanistan

Update
Miami Herald
Relatives tell the Ocala Star-Banner that Sims got married in October, and his wife is pregnant.

North Florida private killed in Afghanistan
December 31, 2012
HERALD STAFF REPORT

A Florida soldier who was on his first deployment to Afghanistan was killed this weekend in an explosion, the Pentagon said Monday.

Army Pfc. Markie T. Sims, 20, of Citra, north of Ocala, died Saturday in Panjwal, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, according to a Defense Department statement.
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TBI Drops in Afghanistan, Doctors Look for Cause

TBI Drops in Afghanistan, Doctors Look for Cause
Dec 19, 2012
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan

U.S. forces in Afghanistan have suffered fewer traumatic brain injuries in Afghanistan in 2012 than in 2011. Records show that traumatic brain injuries among troops in Afghanistan have dropped from 645 per month in 2011 to 373 per month through the first 10 months of this year, according to the Armed Force Health Surveillance Center in Washington, DC.

The principal reason for the drop in TBI cases is certainly tied to the statistic that shows a reduction in the number of fatalities from improvised explosive devices. In 2012, 130 troops died from IED attacks compared to 252 last year and 368 in 2010, according to the website iCasualties.org, which tracks deaths by conflict and country.

The lower TBI numbers may also be due to the lower troop levels in Afghanistan, said Navy Cmdr. Kathleen Grudzien, chief of the surveillance office at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington. The brain injury center is the TBI operational component of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

However, she also suggested that the drop may also reflect a more aggressive approach to diagnosing and treating concussions before they turn into something more serious.
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Wounded soldier says "the world was put on pause"

Wounded soldier recalls the moment 'the world was put on pause'
BY STEVEN MAYER
Californian staff writer
December 15, 2012

He remembers his 10-man platoon was in "an old corn field, hunkered down in the half-flooded furrows."

He could hear in the distance the sound of small arms fire and the distinctive "womp, then the BANG of impact" of rocket-propelled grenades.

Originally hailing from Bakersfield, 1st Lt. Samuel Van Kopp had graduated from the Army's elite West Point academy two years before. Now he was a leader of men -- a platoon leader -- "hunkered down" somewhere in Afghanistan. It was Sept. 26, 2012.

"I hesitate (to tell this story) only because I fear my recollections give the impression of the 26th being an unusual event, like the battle scene in some old movie," he wrote in an email.

But it wasn't unusual at all, said Van Kopp, who turned 25 on Friday. On the contrary, being engaged by the enemy -- a polite term for taking lethal mortar fire, pot shots from hidden machine gunners or threats from improvised explosive devices -- was almost an everyday occurrence.

Once or twice a month, Van Kopp said, his crew would share what he called a "communal 'near-death experience'" that shook people up.

"I'm not talking about striking an IED in a vehicle -- that's a 'non-serious engagement' because though people get concussions, the gunner might get bruised up a bit and it's all very exciting, and certainly the vehicle is rendered non-mission capable for a bit, no one dies or is in danger of dying from the blast alone.

"A 'near-death experience firefight,'" he continued, "is one that starts as an ambush, when by all rights you should have died, when you can literally see the 7.62 rounds ricocheting off the mud brick in front of you, when a mortar round or RPG with your name on it rams into the hill right next to you, when you run like hell to the nearest cover."

Unfortunately for Van Kopp and his men, Sept. 26 would turn into that kind of day -- and worse.
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Soldier says "The doctors didn't know something: I'm a hard-head."

Wounded Afghanistan war veteran's new fight: reclaiming his life
Pfc. Geoffrey Quevedo wasn't expected to survive his injuries from an improvised explosive device. But with help from Naval Medical Center San Diego, he's not going to let them stop him.

Geoffrey Quevedo, left an amputee in Afghanistan, received treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington and is now a patient at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. (Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times / October 19, 2012)

By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times November 13, 2012

SAN DIEGO — When Army Pfc. Geoffrey Quevedo was airlifted late last year to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after being severely wounded in Afghanistan, his family in California was told to hurry to Washington to say a final goodbye.

The 20-year-old from the farming community of Reedley in Fresno County was not expected to live beyond a few days.

A blast from an improvised explosive device had ripped off his left foot and his left arm above the elbow. It knocked out four front teeth, broke his nose and jaw, and collapsed a lung. He was blinded in his left eye, and his blood loss was enormous.

But the doctors' gloomy prediction failed to take into account the cavalry scout's refusal to die, and possibly underestimated the military medical system's ability to pull a young soldier back from the brink of death.

"My family was told to pack their bags and come see their son for the last time," Quevedo said. "The doctors didn't know something: I'm a hard-head."

Now, after a stay at Walter Reed and then at the poly-trauma unit at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Quevedo is receiving care at Naval Medical Center San Diego, including for traumatic brain injury.
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Soldier re-enlists after losing leg in Afghanistan

Wounded Warrior Reenlists After Amputation
Nov 09, 2012
Army.mil/News
by Sgt. Melissa Stewart

FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage are the values that the Army expects all Soldiers to exemplify.

Most Soldiers live every day by these values, but one Soldier went above and beyond what was expected of him, despite the hardships he has endured.

Sgt. Shaun Tichenor, a member of 3rd Battalion, 85th Mountain Infantry (Warrior Transition Unit) and formerly an infantryman with C Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, recently chose to reenlist to continue his military service, despite losing a leg due to injuries sustained in the Arghan-dab River Valley, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, during 3rd Brigade Combat Team's most recent deployment.

While deployed, Tichenor had the dangerous job of clearing dismounted improvised explosive devices from the road so that the rest of the company could pass through safely.

"I was the team leader for the clearance team on our dismounted patrol, and I stepped on a pressure plate IED. It shattered my heel bone and dislocated my ankle," he said.
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Combat wounded veteran runs to honor fallen soldiers

Wonderful story but it would have been nice if the reporter knew the difference between Army and Marines Corps.

Army Vet Runs Across Country Planting Flags for Fallen Soldiers
By COLLEEN CURRY
Nov. 11, 2012

At each mile marker he crossed on his 2,146-mile trip from Minnesota to Texas, Mike Ehredt stopped running for a moment to plant a flag representing a fallen American soldier.

On his journey, Project America Run, he has jogged 26 miles a day across the country to memorialize soldiers who died in the Afghanistan war. In 2010 he ran from Oregon to Maine to honor those who died in Iraq.

"It's to honor and say thank you to those that died in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

"I stop each mile, put a flag down that bears the name, rank, and hometown, in the numerical order of their deaths, and it creates an invisible wall across the country. I just wanted to do something for them, something genuine and pure that no one would replicate."
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New York Army Reservists Killed In Afghanistan

Three Reservists Killed by IED in Afghanistan
Nov 06, 2012
Military.com
by Richard Sisk

Three Army Reserve combat engineers from an upstate N.Y. unit on a route clearing mission in Afghanistan were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in what had been until recently a relatively peaceful corner of southeastern Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Monday.

A fourth soldier form the same unit, the 412th Theater Engineer Command from Oswego, N.Y., was injured in the 1:30 p.m. blast last Saturday in Paktia province that took the lives of Staff Sgt. Dain T. Venne, 29, of Port Henry, N.Y.; Spc. Ryan P. Jayne, 22, of Campbell, N.Y.; and Spc. Brett E. Gornewicz, 27, of Alden, N.Y., said Lt. Col. Doril Sanders, a spokesman for the 412th Engineers.
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Army colonel's memo foreshadowed doomed soldier's email

Army colonel's memo foreshadowed doomed soldier's email
By HOWARD ALTMAN
Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Published: October 15, 2012

Letter from doomed soldier helped change congressman's mind on Afghan withdrawal date

To Sarah Sitton, the scathing, eight-page memo written by Army Col. Harry Tunnell IV to the Secretary of the Army about problems in the area where her husband was deployed seemed eerily familiar.

The memo contained many of the same concerns her husband, Staff Sgt. Matt Sitton, 26, of Largo, raised in an email to Congressman C.W. Bill Young, as well as in emails home and in conversations via Skype.

"A gross lack of concern for subordinates," Tunnell wrote, "manifests itself in guidance that 'zero' civilian casualties are acceptable and coalition soldiers may have to be killed rather than defend themselves against a potential threat and risk being wrong and possibly resulting in injury or death of a civilian."

Reading Tunnell's memo was "kind of like hearing my husband speak all over again," said Sarah Sitton.

But for Sarah Sitton, as well as some of Sitton's friends in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, perhaps the most aggravating thing about Tunnell's memo was that it was written in August 2010. That was nearly two years before Sitton and 1st Sgt. Russell R. Bell, 37, of Tyler, Texas, were killed by an improvised explosive device in the same IED-laden field Sitton complained about being forced to walk through day after day for no reason.
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Army Col. David McKimmey, Bronze Star for Valor in Iraq

Wyoming soldier injured in Iraq earns Bronze Star for valor
JOAN BARRON
Casper Star-Tribune
October 13, 2012

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Army Col. David McKimmey didn't realize his leg had been broken until he tried to stand up.

He didn't find out until later that he had other fractures and burns to his face and hands.

He patted himself down, checking for bleeding. He found none.

McKimmey crawled to the burning Humvee and tried unsuccessfully to save another soldier inside.

He continued providing first aid to two other soldiers until the evacuation team arrived.

It was Sept. 5, 2007, on a road north of Balad, Iraq.

An improved explosive device buried in the road had exploded when McKimmey's Humvee, one of a three-vehicle convoy, drove over it.

Of the four men in the vehicle, only McKimmey and another soldier survived.

The crew was nearing the end of its 15-month deployment in Iraq.
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'IED Whisperer' a lifesaver in Afghanistan

This is a great example of how our soldiers are there trying to save lives but the Taliban are there to take lives, no matter who gets killed.

'IED Whisperer' a lifesaver in Afghanistan
Staff Sgt. Kelly Rogne, who serves with a battalion from Joint Base Lewis McChord, is known as the "IED whisperer" for his ability to find the makeshift bombs that have extracted such a deadly toll in Afghanistan.
By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter
Saturday, October 13, 2012

On a September patrol in Afghanistan's Panjwai District, Staff Sgt. Kelly Rogne of Colville uses a metal detector to search for improvised explosive devices.

BABINEK, Afghanistan — Staff Sgt. Kelly Rogne walked down a dusty village road, rhythmically swinging a metal detector that resembled an oversized hockey stick.

He led a column of more than 20 soldiers past deep-green fields of marijuana that surround this village in Panjwai district, traditional homeland of the Taliban.

To defend this turf, Taliban fighters have seeded Babinek and other areas with dense concentrations of bombs, creating one of the most perilous patrol grounds U.S. soldiers have encountered during more than 11 years of war in Afghanistan.

Rogne, 36, from Colville, Stevens County, has displayed an uncanny ability to find these improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He uses technology, tracking skills and intuition honed by careful study of past bomb placements.

Some call Rogne the "IED Whisperer."

On an early September patrol out of Combat Outpost Mushan, Rogne located 29 IEDs through the course of a painstaking, eight-hour movement across less than a kilometer of road, an accomplishment relayed through the chain of command to Pentagon generals.

Staff Sgt. Caleb Duncan, of Vancouver, Wash., recalls one child, a triple amputee, who was brought to battalion soldiers for medical care.

Duncan said it was one of the worst things he has seen in this war. "You don't have to speak to put out the message: 'Look, the Americans didn't do this, the Taliban did.' " read more here

Soldier from Zephyrhills wounded by IED in Afghanistan

Bomb blast injures Zephyrhills High grad
By EDDIE DANIELS
The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 11, 2012

Former Zephyrhills High student Tyler Jeffries, right front, was injured when an IED he stepped on with his left foot exploded Oct. 6 in Afghanistan.

WESLEY CHAPEL
Dotty Campbell was driving to work Saturday morning when she answered her cell phone.

It was her father. He had news about her nephew Tyler Jeffries.

"I had to pull over because I was devastated," she said Wednesday.

Jeffries, a 2007 Zephyrhills High School graduate and an Army infantry member serving in Afghanistan, was injured Saturday when he stepped on an improvised explosive device, or IED.

The explosion took off a portion of the 23-year-old's left leg above the knee as well as a part of his right leg below the knee, Campbell said. Wednesday morning, surgeons at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., removed the remainder of his left leg at the hip.

Jeffries, who was deployed in April for his first tour of duty, will spend the next few days in the hospital's intensive care unit. read more here

Vietnam Veteran gives dog to disabled Afghanistan Veteran

Veteran Gives Free Dog to Another Veteran
KCRG.com
By Addison Speck, Reporter
Sep 22, 2012

GARNAVILLO, Iowa - A Northeast Iowa Veteran received a new dog, free of charge, on Saturday. The dog was delivered by another veteran wanting to pay it forward.

Adam Eilers was ready to pay for a hungarian vizsla dog. He knew a man was coming to drop it off early Saturday afternoon. To his surprise, a man named Mark McAvan showed up and told him the dog was his, no money necessary.

"Never in my mind did I expect that, it was a really good surprise," said Eilers.

McAvan is a Vietnam Veteran who lives in Vinton. When he heard Eilers wanted the dog, he did all he could to make it happen.

On Saturday he was up early to make the trip from Vinton to Sigourney to pick up the dog, then made the trek from Sigourney to Garnavillo to deliver it. After nearly six hours he arrived at Eilers house. "It's just my way of saying thank you, these vets have given enough," said McAvan.

Eilers served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011. While he was there a vehicle he was in was hit with an IED. "I had a broken vertebrae, collapsed lung, broken left leg, broken left arm, and they decided to take half of my skull out," said Eilers.
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Sent by John Mikelson

Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton wrote letter to save others before he was killed

Letter from doomed soldier helped change congressman's mind on Afghan withdrawal date
By HOWARD ALTMAN
Tampa Tribune
Published: September 20, 2012

TAMPA — Sarah Sitton knew her husband Matt, an Army staff sergeant, was upset he and his men were forced to trudge through fields laden with improvised explosive devices.

She knew he was so concerned he wrote a letter essentially predicting his own death to U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who attended the same Largo church as the Sittons.

What surprised her was how much impact the letter would have.

Young this week reversed his position on Afghanistan, a change of heart he says came in part because of Sitton's letter. In a position opposite that held by most leaders of his party, the influential Republican is now calling for U.S. troops to leave the country ahead of the 2014 deadline called for by President Barack Obama.

He also has called a hearing for 10 a.m. Thursday to ask the agency in charge of protecting troops against IEDs to explain why so many are still dying and suffering horrific injuries despite an annual budget of nearly $3 billion.

Sitton was killed Aug. 2 by an IED in the same field he had complained about in his letter. He was 26.

"I don't feel Matt's service was in vain," said Sarah Sitton, who now is raising the couple's 10-month-old son, Brodey, on her own. "Because with him leaving that letter behind to the Congressman, I hope that it saves others that may come in the future."
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