Posted on 07/28/2007 12:55:54 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2007 Martinez! We made it! Army Sgt. Luis Rivera-Valentin shouted to his fellow soldier Sgt. Luis Martinez upon seeing him in a coalition hospital in Baghdad.
Around 1 a.m., an explosively-formed penetrator -- a shaped charge designed to penetrate vehicle armor -- exploded into the vehicle. The bomb hit right on my side window, Martinez said. The shrapnel came right through my eye, destroying the lens and the cornea. Hot shrapnel ripped through the vehicle and also hit Rivera-Valentins eye, leaving him partially blind too. Right now, I dont have any lens in my left eye, he said, motioning to an eye patch held fast over his eye socket by an elastic band. The two National Guard soldiers met after Martinez was promoted to sergeant and transferred into Company A, 130th Engineer Battalion, from Puerto Rico. As they became friends, they realized they had much in common. In fact, one could say they lives were mirrored. Each mans hometown lies a few miles off Autopista Jose de Diego highway near Puerto Ricos northern coastline, where each lives with his wife and two kids. They sat next to each other inside the same vehicle when it was rocked by the detonation. Their lives flashed before their eyes at the same exact moment while on the same road in a foreign country. The soldiers wheeled next to each other on stretchers, and each man reached over his gurney and held his fellow soldiers hand in the hospital. Matching black oval patches now cover each mans single injured eye. And at Walter Reed Medical Center here, where each soldiers uniform was pinned today with an identical Purple Heart Medal, doctors told each man he has a 50 percent chance of regaining vision in his damaged eye. But the two friends dont worry about the surgeries that will take place over the next three months, they say, and their friendship has been reinforced during their mutual recoveries. We talk all the time about having faith in God, and that were going to fine, Martinez said. We talk about it, we cry about. The more you talk about it the better you feel about it, and the more you raise your spirits. Rivera-Valentin is equally optimistic. I feel very well. I give thanks to God everyday because at least I can see my family, he said. The soldier says hes confident in the medical attention hes receiving at the Army hospital. Theyre great doctors, he said. They say theyre going to do their best. Rivera-Valentin and Martinez were two of 14 soldiers who received the Purple Heart Medal at Walter Reed today. The Purple Heart, awarded to U.S. servicemembers wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy, is one of the most recognized and respected military decorations. Todays recipients are among the nearly 27,000 servicemembers wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and nearly 1,500 wounded in Operation Enduring Freedom. |
Does anyone know why it seems like Sgt’s take a lot of casualties? It seems like every list has an abundance of Sgts on it.
And Bravo Gentlemen, thank you for your service to America!
They are leaders! They are where they should be...leading the way.
In today’s Army/Marines—AS IN ALL OUR HISTORY—our SGTs LEAD FROM THE FRONT.
Dad of an Army Infantry SSG. God bless ‘em all, whatever their rank...
Thank God for men such as these.
mrs
We talk all the time about having faith in God, and that were going to fine, Martinez said. We talk about it, we cry about. The more you talk about it the better you feel about it, and the more you raise your spirits.<<<
They are wonderful, brave Americans.
I will never be able to say thank you, enough.
Did you notice that they lost opposite eyes?
They are still a team.
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