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BY LORY POUNDER, Summit Daily News
FRISCO - A rocket-propelled grenade landed within feet of Army Staff Sgt. Rich Watson on the streets in the Diyala Province of Iraq, throwing him into the ground.
"When he woke up from the initial blast he was face down on the pavement," said his mom, Sharon Jones-Bird, of Frisco, who talked to her son while he laid in an Iraqi hospital bed this week.
She and her husband, Jerry Bird, worry everyday about their son, who is in the ninth month of his second tour of Iraq. The call that came in this week only intensified their concerns.
Watson's wife, Tonya, of Texas, phoned the Birds about 1 a.m. Monday. All she could tell them was that their son was hurt. Twelve hours later, they all heard from the injured soldier.
"I aged quite a bit in that 12-hour period. ... I get breathless just thinking about it," Sharon said. "I hate to cry, and I cry every day."
She and Jerry recounted the situation their son recently faced. After the blast, the first thing Watson, a career soldier already in possession of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, saw was one of his men being shot at in the street. He ran for the soldier and dragged him behind a nearby Stryker Armored Vehicle, where he called for backup before passing out again. The next time he woke up was in a nearby hospital with his head pounding from the pressure and concussion he suffered during the attack.
He's under observation and doctors think he "might have cranial bleeding," but if today he "can stand up and shoot straight they'll send him back into the meat again," Jerry said.
As Sharon choked back tears, she said, "It's a tough job. They're so tired. I don't know how they keep going. ... Every day I hope he's OK. I'm really proud of him. ... Proud of him, but terrified." [...]