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Army Reserve doctor brings the war home through e-mail
Wearing surgical scrubs stained by the blood of amputees and others wounded by Iraqi and American bombs and bullets, Army Reserve Col. Herbert W. Percival sat in the desert and wrote home about war."The bullet sneaked through a very small gap in the axillary (armpit) area of his body armor. A tiny hole," he pecked out on a Dell laptop from an Army hospital in Mosul, Iraq. "He arrived unconscious with no vital signs. Everyone tried but his blood was somewhere else A sniper shot. An unlucky shot. A cheap shot. Shot through the heart and under the flag." The orthopedic surgeon hit send, and the tragedy was transmitted to family members and friends scattered across the United States. He wrote of boots removed from soldiers who no longer have feet. He wrote of an operating room filled with the wounded: American and Iraqi soldiers, civilians and suspected insurgents blindfolded during surgery so they couldn't identify doctors or nurses. The words formed a portal to a war that in March will be five years old. Article continues at link. The story of another patriotic soldier doing - in his precious spare time - the job professional journalists simulate. Posted by: ryuge 2008-02-10 |
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