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Wounded soldier returns to Hammond

Aug-29-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

The 113th Engineers support the 1/25 SBCT

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By Steve Walsh, Post-Tribune

HAMMOND — The front steps of his parents’ home are quieter and cooler than the back seat of a humvee in Mosul in July.

Spc. David Edwards, 22, of Hammond, is legally blind since a roadside motor detonated less than 5 feet from his humvee while he traveled through the often angry Palestine neighborhood of western Mosul.

“I just saw a flash and heard a boom. I was kind of out of it, but I was conscious,” Edwards said.

He came home Aug. 20 from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, outside Washington, D.C. Edwards will return to the hospital Sept. 17 to be fitted for a contact in his right eye and to prepare for another surgery on his more damaged left eye.

“They are hoping I can get back a good percentage of my vision,” he said.

An exact tally has not been available, but Edwards is among the more than two dozen soldiers with the Indiana National Guard 113th Engineer Battalion who received Purple Hearts since the unit went to Iraq in late December. He is one of the few who have been sent home. No one has died from the unit, which is based in Gary and is comprised of other units from LaPorte, Valparaiso and Hammond. Edwards’ injury is so far the most extensive injury reported.

The local unit’s tour of duty has been a mix of the dangerous and the mundane. Some soldiers report via e-mail that they have settled into a routine of guard duty in Mosul.

The family of Sgt. Damon Schroeder, 28, of LaPorte, was notified by the military last week that he and four other soldiers were hit by shrapnel near where they are stationed in Tall Afar. Schroeder is expected to return to active duty after seven days. [...]


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