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Local soldier hurt in Iraq

Mar-30-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Let's all pray for a speedy recovery for Spc. Jon Harris.

By CARYL CLARKE, Daily Record

Mar 30, 2007 — Lindsay Harris said her brother's voice alarmed her when he called Saturday from Iraq.

"He sounded horrible," Harris said. "'Jon, what's wrong? Are you OK?'"

He said no, but he would be OK, please let him speak with Aunt Christy.

Only hours earlier, an improvised explosive device, or IED, in Baqubah, Iraq, had rocked the Stryker that Spc. Jon Harris was riding in. The explosion cost him his left foot.

In that call, he said what has become his mantra - "You will have to be OK because I am going to be OK."

His grandmother, Doris Harris, said her grandson told her the medical training he received saved his life.

"He said he knew what to do when his foot was blown off," Doris Harris said.

The wounded 23-year-old soldier from West York was flown from Baqubah to Baghdad and then to the Land- stuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where his Aunt Jo met him, his father, Lloyd Harris, said.

"My sister (Jo Nanez) lives there about 20 minutes from where he is," Lloyd Harris said.

Doctors amputated his son's left foot just above his ankle. Other leg bones were also broken, Lloyd Harris said.

He said he spoke with his son for about 30 minutes Wednesday night. It now takes four people to lift him. He'll need several months of rehabilitation when he returns to the states. [...]


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