Not many combat vets leave the field without at least one regret. Significant decisions are made in split seconds. An innocent screw-up can cost lives. I did not go completely unscathed.
My regret stemmed from a typical fire fight. The engagement was intense, but short and sweet. We came out of it with no one killed and no serious injuries. Everyone was still pumped with adrenaline. But I felt relief in not having to deal with a medical crisis…at least until the next hostile contact.
A trooper came up to me with a minute break in his skin…small enough that he literally had to point it out. He stated that some rounds had grazed his position; one round may have hit the metal on his gear…creating a secondary fragment.
I put something on it to prevent infection and covered it with a bandaid. (It paled against the multitude of battle dressings we commonly used.) He said it stung. I noted that.
There was no visible reason to immediately evacuate him. However, I asked him to do two things. First, let me see him if anything about it changed. Then I asked him to remind me of the incident as soon as we returned to the rear; I would personally take him to the aid station.
Time flew by. The return to base camp didn’t materialize. I eventually transferred out and ended up in a different company, different platoon.
My tour finally ended. The original Currahees were all rotating out at the same time. I saw the trooper on my very last day at base camp. He actually called me out to confront me.
He had volunteered to extend his tour as a helicopter door gunner. They took an xray and discovered a small fragment; he did not pass their flight examination.
Our medical team was disbanding. The window for documentation had passed. I listened to his frustration sincerely. I honestly felt bad for him. A thought crossed my mind that he never reminded me…but I had lost that memory after several more firefights. I just sucked it up and let him vent.
Currahees…in hindsight, I should have radioed a message to the aid station to document a possible secondary fragment. They would have noted the incident and found some routine means of follow up.
Now I see that a trooper also missed a purple heart and probably had major issues with the Veteran’s Administration with medical claims. Of all the decisions I made…this was my own personal bad call. Living with a mistake is not easy. I honestly think that was the only one… but I wish it had never happened.
althompson101 