The Unseen Wounded

Her Story Starts Here

Once upon a time there was a girl, not a little girl, but a really small grown up girl, who wanted to be in the Army. She was four feet and an inch or two high and skinny. She had to eat and exercise to gain weight to meet the requirments. She had to study for the exams. She failed the written test twice but the third time she passed!

At boot camp she was the first one up the tower and over the walls. She worked hard to be the best. She studied every night.

She transfered from Infantry to Airborne and went through additional training. She learned to jump out of planes with a parachute.

When her training was done she was sent to Iraq. Her company was stationed in Baghdad. She was in the 82nd Airborne, 327th Signal Battalion out of Fort Bragg, NC.

One day she walked out the door of the barracks for the day's PT. That's physical training. She was wearing regulation shorts and a tee shirt. Someone fired off a mortar round nearby. The explosion was so close it shocked her. She started to turn and go back inside to get undercover but a second round landed about 5 feet from her.

On Wednesday, 22 June 2005 about 21:00 (all dates and times are Baghdad time) Jewel's Dad was notified his daughter had been wounded in Baghdad by mortar fire.

He sent up copies of all the updates he recieved on her in the following days. I mailed her the following letter by snail and email.

Dear Jewel, favorite niece,

We have just received word that you have been wounded and are being evacuated to Germany.Your Dad got the email that says you had many surface wounds from flying schrapnel and pieces embedded near your spine and liver.

The second email detailed the leg, broken near the knee that has been set in a cast and a knee brace. They also said you have a slash cut in your face from the lip to the cheek.

The third one said you had been treated, the schrapnel removed and would be evacuated to Germany.

Your Dad told your Uncle Bill and Grampa Ron. Uncle called me at work. We are letting the rest of the family know.

I called your Dad. After your Uncle left he got a call from you, praise God! He was so happy to hear your voice! He told me you had to hang up to get on the transport that is taking you away from that place on your first step home.

He wishes he could be in Germany to meet you and be with you but we will all have to wait till you are in the States again. He gave me your TRACES tracking number but there is no place on line I can find to get info on you with it. I guess we have to call the hospital when you arrive.

I hope this letter finds you. We all want you to know we are praying for you and will do whatever we can to help. Call collect our time in the evening to let us know what you need. If you need someone to contact your fiance who is still over in Iraq, let me know.

I know how much surgury takes out of you so don't expect to just hop up and party for a while. It's ok to be too tired to even talk or read a book. Just rest and let your body and heart heal.

We love you and will join you when we can.

Your Dad and family, Grampa R and Grama A, Uncle B and Aunt V, Grama W and Grama P (my mom), Cousins D, A and their families, All the other W's that love you

P.S. Sending a copy to the hospital as well as your email.

*************

Thursday, 23 June 2005 08:57

I have just got off the phone with the hospital in the IZ.

The good news is SPC Weiler’s lungs are clear – there was no puncture or compromise of her torso, only relatively minor shrapnel wounds.

She has several deep shrapnel wounds to her right leg with possible damage to her femur (the corpsman I talked to was not sure if it was fractured or not, or if the damage was from impact or shrapnel), and a single fracture on her lower left leg. She will be admitted, but no decision has been made regarding MEDEVAC.

She is not in any danger or in critical condition.

I will call again at 0600 to see if there is any update.

*************

I have just got off the phone with the hospital where your daughter is currently receiving treatment. The good news is that at this time she is doing fine, had a good night, and is stable. She is not in any danger, and everyone I spoke with said she should have no problems making a full recovery and will not have any loss of any functions.

Since I wrote the note below I have received better information, so I’m going to recap all her injuries here. There are some rumors going around, but what I write here came directly from her doctor and from my personal observation.

• SPC Jewel was very close to the blast, and got hit with a lot of fragments. She has a very large number of very small wounds. Most of her wounds are skin punctures from small pieces of rocks. A smaller number are from metal fragments. Most of these are on her legs.
• Her most serious injuries appear to be two small pieces of metal that did penetrate her torso. One is in the area of her left lung, the other is near the right lobe of her liver. Her lung was not punctured by the fragment and she is having no trouble breathing, it is just in the lung area of her chest.
• Her liver was slightly nicked and she had some fluid build up in her pelvis, but none of the major arteries or veins in the area were cut.
• The doctor I spoke with stated that they would make a decision in Germany about removing these, but there will not be any surgical intervention here because again the injuries are not critical or dangerous, and due to the dirt here they do not do any surgery unless there is no choice.
• Jewel has a facture of her right fibula. She has a cast on her right leg and a brace for her right knee. I asked about the previous report that she had broken anything in her left leg or her femur, and the doctor today said it was her right fibula. I’ll continue to check on this and should be able to send you a 100% verified account within the next two hours.
• She has several small cuts. The most serious cut is on her face to the left of her mouth, and it’s about 3/4 of an inch long. This and a few other cuts have been stitched. Other cuts were on her shoulder and several very minor ones on her legs.
• She was initially intubated to help with breathing while they examined and treated her last night, but the tube is out and she was awake and communicating this morning.

This information is slightly different than what I sent out last night, and may change again, but I will keep you fully updated on all changes or additional developments.

SPC Jewel will be evacuated to Balad Airfield Iraq and then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany tonight. They do not yet have flight times or a tracking number for her, but I will get that later this afternoon and forward to you as soon as I receive it.

Once she gets to LRMC she will have a phone in her room, and when I get that number I will let you know immediately. You will be able to call that number through the military phone system if you have access, or commercially if you don’t.

I was not able to speak to Jewel this morning because she was groggy and the phone in the hospital here would not reach her bed, but her lieutenant and platoon sergeant will by flying in to see her within the next half hour, and again I will keep you posted with all the information as soon as we receive it.

*************

We were worried and tense. The emails came often and that really helped. While I was looking for ways to get information on our wounded soldier I found out some things that really bothered me.

posted by Valerie - Still Riding Forward @ 12:59 AM 0 comments