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Lives Blown Apart

Aug-17-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

The following editorial profiles Sema Olson and her son, CPL Bobby Rosendahl. CPL Rosendahl was a member of the 1/25 SBCT who was seriously injured in Mosul in March 2005. He is still recovering at Walter Reed and Sema has moved back there to be with him. The struggle described by this family is one that I've heard many times before, unfortunately. We've put together a list of organizations that offer direct support if you're interested in helping families in similar situations.

Link to Full Editorial
By BOB HERBERT, The New York Times

Sema Olson was in the living room watching television when the phone rang. It was the Department of the Army calling. A voice asked if she'd heard from her son in the past 24 hours.

Ms. Olson tried to ward off the panic. "Is he still alive?" she asked.

After verifying her identity, the man on the phone assured her that her son, Bobby Rosendahl, who was stationed in Iraq, was still alive. But he'd been badly wounded.

With that Saturday night phone call, life as Ms. Olson had known it came to an end. Her family's long, long period of overwhelming sacrifice was under way.

Bobby Rosendahl, a 24-year-old Army corporal (and avid golfer) from Tacoma, Wash., was literally blown into the air last March 12 when an improvised explosive device detonated beneath his Stryker armored vehicle. He remembers landing on his back, with fuel spilling all around him and insurgents firing at him from the roof of a mosque. [...]

Ms. Olson, who is 45 and divorced, gave up everything - her work, her rented townhouse, her car - and moved from Tacoma to a hotel on the grounds of Walter Reed to be with her son and assist in his recovery. [...]

Ms. Olson is a paralegal who did work for several lawyers in Tacoma. She also worked as a claims analyst for the city's transit system. With that work gone, she is now living on the $48 per diem she receives from the Army for food and lodging, along with money that she has reluctantly been drawing from her son's Army pay, and assistance she is receiving from another son, Keith, who is 27.

She has also received help from charitable organizations that assist military families.

Be sure to read the full story. Thanks to M Baker for the link.


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