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| WND: ’I love it,’ badly wounded GI says of service |
| 2004-06-05 |
| A U.S. soldier who lost an eye and had his jaw wired shut after being hit by shrapnel says he wants to go back to Iraq. "I love it," 20-year-old Simon Garcia told KATU-TV in Portland, Ore. "It’s a great feeling going down there and seeing the people and helping them." Garcia, a gunner atop a Humvee, was on patrol in Baghdad nearly a month ago when an improvised explosive device went off. "We’re about 10 feet away from it and shrapnel came at me, went through my jaw all the way inside my face up to my left eye, and took out my left eye," he told the Portland station. Garcia, a member of the Oregon National Guard’s Second Battalion 162nd Infantry, said he fell back into the Humvee bleeding. He then began to pray. "The first thing that came to me is ’the Lord is my shepherd’ and I started praying right then and there - don’t take my life here," he recounted. "I was not thinking about pain." Garcia was taken to a hospital in Germany and now is at home in Portland. He will be fitted with a prosthetic eye, but his hopes of becoming a police officer have been dashed. "I’ve pretty much gotten over that," he told KATU. "I’m going to join active duty and continue as long as I possible can." He’s seeking an administrative position, the TV station said. I hope he gets a spot. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |