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| Home Front: WoT |
| Rembering Their Service |
| 2005-11-11 |
| It was a sunny day in Iraq - he remembered that - and then it was still sunny and people were working on him. Maj. David Lofgren, a 6th Civil Affairs Group team leader, lay in bed Thursday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and recalled what he didn't remember. Not the bullet that tore through his left hand. Not the one that slammed into his thigh. Not the severed artery that bled and bled and bled. What Lofgren, who had his last surgery Wednesday, does remember is the help of fellow Marines and military personnel after he was hit. "So many people," he whispers, his head nestled on a Stars and Stripes-patterned pillow. "I just have heartfelt thanks for all those who helped me. It's incredible. It's overwhelming." Lofgren's service and that of others is what Veterans Day is all about: honoring war veterans for their patriotism and sacrifice. For 45 minutes after the attack, Lofgren, a veteran of the Gulf War, pressed on his thigh to staunch the flood of blood, but he doesn't remember that either. His wife, Vongthipsuda "Giap" Lofgren, said his teammates reported his action. "He felt terribly guilty about leaving his Marines there," she said. "He only started to feel OK when he got a call from one of the guys in Iraq saying they were OK. He was the only one wounded." The attack was only four weeks ago, but time is irrelevant when you're critically injured. Lofgren, 44, is one of more than 1,500 military personnel from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive treatment at the critical-care facility in Bethesda since March 2004, said Lt. Bashon W. Mann, a public affairs officer. "He volunteered to go," "Giap" Lofgren said. "People asked me, 'How can you let him go?' No one wants their husband or spouse to go, but his life is the Marine Corps. It's who he is." Lofgren won't be well enough to travel home to Norfolk to celebrate Veterans Day, but on Thursday afternoon, he was scheduled to see his four sons: Eric, 9, Nikalas, 7, Kristian, 5, and Lukas, 2. Seeing them, he said, was home enough for him. |
| Posted by:Bobby |