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Wounded soldier: 'When I came to . . . I saw open sky'

Dec-22-2004 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

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BY JEREMY REDMON PHOTOS BY DEAN HOFFMEYER

MOSUL, Iraq - Sgt. Kyle Wright was about to take a bite of chocolate cake when the blast knocked him out of his chair.

Two other Virginia National Guardsmen picked him up and rushed him out of the chow-hall tent on Forward Operating Base Marez.

"I kind of went into the air," Wright said as he lay in a hospital near Mosul airfield, recovering from wounds to his leg and back.

"When I came to, I looked up and I saw open sky."

The Richlands, Va., resident smiled, remembering it was his wedding anniversary. A brown blanket covered his waist. An IV tube dangled from his arm.

Wright is a member of the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion, which is supporting U.S. troops that have been fighting a growing insurgency in the northern Iraq city of Mosul for the past year.

U.S. troops and firefighters, civilian contractors from KBR, and Iraqi national guardsmen pulled together and carried about 80 wounded and dead soldiers to the hospital.

"The response today was phenomenal," said Master Sgt. David Scott, chief ward master for the hospital. "It was like a parking lot out there."

The hospital workers scrambled to treat soldiers injured from many BB-size pellets that sprayed from the explosion. They also treated soldiers for burns, shrapnel wounds and damage to their eyes.

"This is the worst we have seen in the 11 months since we have been here," Scott said. "Today was really the test for us."


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