Home paper carried the story of our own Chris Charette recovery from wounds received in combat with vampire orcs.
Home from war: Wounded Leesburg marine describes facing enemy in Iraq
By: Anne Keisman
Lance Cpl. Chris Charette, 21, sat in his parents' comfortable living room in Leesburg on Friday. It was a far cry from the scene he faced seven weeks ago: on a boat, patrolling a strategic river in Iraq -- under fire from the enemy.
On Oct. 26, Charette was shot twice - once in the neck and once in the left hand, which caused him to lose his thumb. He is left-handed.
After three hospital stays - Iraq, Germany and Bethesda, Md. -- he is now home, recovering with the help of his family, his girlfriend and physical therapy three times a week.
The Marine reservist lives with his parents, Diane and David Charette, and younger siblings Chelsea and David, in the Potomac Crossing neighborhood in Leesburg.
"We're just glad he's back. He is leading a semi-normal life right now. He still needs a lot of help," said his mother.
His left arm is temporarily paralyzed, but he gains more sensation every day. The stitches in his neck were recently removed and the physical therapy helps keep his neck and arm muscles strong.
"I'm just looking forward to one day when I won't need any medications and can drive my car," he said. He owns a Nissan NX2000, which sits idle in the driveway.
Ambushed on the Euphrates
Charette, a 2003 Stone Bridge High grad, had only been in Iraq about 10 days when he was wounded. His unit, based out of Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., is charged with protecting the waterways and dams near the city of Haditha in the Euphrates River Valley.
On Oct. 26, his unit had not yet engaged in any combat. This was about to change.
"We were on patrol on the [Euphrates] River and came under ambush," Charette said. He remembers hearing the "clanging" sound of metal hitting metal -- from his side of the boat.
"We looked onshore and there were guys hiding behind palm trees shooting at us. And we all started firing.
"We got through that ambush fine," Charette said. "But about 10 minutes later, we were ambushed again on the same side. And that time, I was hit. It hit my hand and it took off my thumb. At the time I had gloves on. I looked down and saw there was a hole in my glove and I was bleeding."
About 20 to 30 seconds later, he said, he was hit again through the neck.
"When I got hit in the neck, it threw me. It hit me hard and threw me onto my back and it paralyzed my left arm. And when I tried to get back up I couldn't do it because I couldn't move my arm.
"[The bullet] went through my neck at an angle so that it hit my collar bone, my clavicle, my scapula and went out through my shoulder. It didn't hit anything important, luckily."
Charette methodically listed everything the bullet missed: his carotid artery, his esophagus, his lungs.
"That's when the guy next to me yelled, 'Charette's hit! Charette's hit!'" One of his shipmates immediately placed a tourniquet on his arm.
Then a corpsman, the Marine equivalent to an U.S. Army medic, came over from another boat just as the second ambush ceased. The corpsman got the bleeding stopped in about a minute. But, before the Medevac arrived, the patrol boat was ambushed a third time.
"Immediately, Doc Schu, my corpsman, jumped on top of me so I wouldn't get hit or hurt anymore."
Through a reign of bullets, they finally made it to the helicopter, which transported him to Al Asad Surgical Hospital.
"They took care of me at the hospital. They put a mask on my face and I woke up a week and a half later in Germany," he said.
Two visions of Iraq
Charette reflected on two visions of war-torn Iraq: the violent one that left him bleeding on the deck of a boat, and another - one not often heard about.
His unit was stationed next to a large lake in the Al Anbar Province, Lake Qadisiyah. The lake made the news recently when a helicopter crashed into it.
"The lake was crystal clear. [There were] palm trees, yellow sand. In the early morning, you hear from the city ... the prayers. It comes out of nowhere. Sometimes they are singing, sometimes they are talking. But it's kind of peaceful, looking out over the water - the sun just coming up."
The soldier could see a kind of hope in the area's natural beauty. Since being home, he has stopped watching the news because of the constant barrage of negative images from Iraq.
"What I see on TV is not what I saw in Iraq. I saw a lot of positive stuff in Iraq." Schools are being built, he said, and police are being trained.
"There are so many people over there trying to make a difference, trying to help people out," he said. "Luckily, in Iraq, we didn't hear all the politics. We just do our thing.
"All the news shows is the body count."
Recovery
The doctors tell him he could have surgery to relocate his pointer finger to act as a thumb for his left hand. He is seriously considering it.
While in Bethesda recovering, he received many gifts and visitors. One day, singer Stevie Nicks dropped by and gave him a brand-new iPod with 800 songs on it. Actor Gary Sinese and Miss Pennsylvania Emily Wills also came by.
Charette still keeps in touch with his buddies in Iraq, sometimes by phone, mostly by e-mail and instant messenging.
He is currently on military leave from Best Buy in Leesburg. He looks forward to returning to work and possibly buying a house when he is fully recovered.
He said he has the option to return to Iraq but has not decided if he will. He will definitely stay in the reserves, even if his disability keeps him off the front lines.
"Even if they gave me an office job ... I'd do it - as long as I can serve in the military and serve my country," he said.
Charette will receive his Purple Heart as soon as the paperwork moves through the process.
Contact the reporter at akeiman@timespapers.com
