thedrifter
05-26-06, 07:31 AM
Wounded Warriors tell story
May 26,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Any story, no matter how difficult, grows easier with each telling. Ask the Marines and sailors of Camp Lejeune’s Wounded Warriors barracks; they have lived some hard tales.
And now tell them often.
“I didn’t talk for probably the first seven or eight months (after my injury),” said Gunnery Sgt. Ken Barnes, who injured his hand in Iraq and has been the top enlisted man in the barracks. “Coming here, you tell the story in the first week at least a dozen times. By now I can rattle off the story of how I got hurt, what happened to me, where I went, what hospitals.
“It’s become part of being in the barracks,” he added. “The faster you can get them talking about it, the better it is. You don’t need to keep that stuff bottled up.”
The barracks, which officially opened in November, now serves as a sanctuary that brings the hurting together so they may heal together, gather strength and prepare for their next plunge into the breach.
This is a new concept in the military; Lejeune’s barracks is the first of its kind. This trend — similar barracks are in the works across the military — has garnered attention from every direction. Corporations have donated products. Politicians and celebrities have paid visits. Miss USA 2006 stopped by.
And reporters have done all kinds of stories, in publications big and small. The latest is an hour-long documentary that will air on CNN Saturday at 8 p.m.
Titled “Wounded Warriors,” the program features a segment on the barracks and its inspiration and founder, Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, a Marine who has battled back from a debilitating head wound.
These military wounded are a new kind of celebrity in today’s America, men and women who peered into the abyss and returned to tell about it. These warriors are living evidence of the sacrifice many are making, a concept fuzzy in the abstract but starkly clear when confronted by scar tissue and skin grafts and empty spaces where limbs should be.
“Some of these guys have amazing stories,” Barnes said. “People need to know these guys weren’t curling up in a ball and giving up. They are not hearing it from some senator or general, its coming from the guy on the ground. And they want to go back to where they were hurt.”
‘Still here’
Yet there’s always a downside. The constant barrage of attention can be tiring, and it’s often difficult for the new guys to climb out of their shell and talk with reporters or celebrities.
Sgt. Jason Simms of Philadelphia remembers doing an interview with a hometown newspaper and being irked while telling his story countless times.
But Simms — who suffered major burns to his face and arms, nerve damage and a broken leg in July 2004 when his light armored vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Iraq — said it’s another thing you get used to.
“It’s good to talk about,” he said.” If someone wants to hear my story, I’ll tell them. I won’t go up to anyone ,but if they ask, I’ll tell them. We’re so used to it.”
Simms is one of the originals at the barracks and says many of the barrack’s amenities — including a recreation room with computers and a lounge with plush chairs, a big-screen TV and videogame systems — are there in part because of the good buzz.
“We had nothing, then reporters starting coming down and doing stories, then all this stuff started showing up,” he said.
Navy Corpsman First Class Glenn Minney, a 39-year-old reservist with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines’ “Lucky Lima” Company, was wounded in Haditha, Iraq, by a mortar that struck 30 feet from where he was standing. He suffered serious eye and brain injuries.
Now, Minney sometimes struggles with his words. He’s blind in one eye and partially blind in the other.
“So these guys purposely move the furniture around on me,” he joked.
He loves the media attention because he wants America to know their stories.
“People need to see what’s going on, that the military is not forgetting about the injured Marines and sailors,” he said. “I’m a corpsman and I can’t see, but I’m still here.”
Barnes said the attention also gives them the simple but valuable realization that people stand behind them.
“They get to meet people they’ll never get to meet otherwise,” he said. “It gives them a chance to see that people outside the military do care.”
Contact staff writer Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 229.
Ellie
May 26,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Any story, no matter how difficult, grows easier with each telling. Ask the Marines and sailors of Camp Lejeune’s Wounded Warriors barracks; they have lived some hard tales.
And now tell them often.
“I didn’t talk for probably the first seven or eight months (after my injury),” said Gunnery Sgt. Ken Barnes, who injured his hand in Iraq and has been the top enlisted man in the barracks. “Coming here, you tell the story in the first week at least a dozen times. By now I can rattle off the story of how I got hurt, what happened to me, where I went, what hospitals.
“It’s become part of being in the barracks,” he added. “The faster you can get them talking about it, the better it is. You don’t need to keep that stuff bottled up.”
The barracks, which officially opened in November, now serves as a sanctuary that brings the hurting together so they may heal together, gather strength and prepare for their next plunge into the breach.
This is a new concept in the military; Lejeune’s barracks is the first of its kind. This trend — similar barracks are in the works across the military — has garnered attention from every direction. Corporations have donated products. Politicians and celebrities have paid visits. Miss USA 2006 stopped by.
And reporters have done all kinds of stories, in publications big and small. The latest is an hour-long documentary that will air on CNN Saturday at 8 p.m.
Titled “Wounded Warriors,” the program features a segment on the barracks and its inspiration and founder, Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, a Marine who has battled back from a debilitating head wound.
These military wounded are a new kind of celebrity in today’s America, men and women who peered into the abyss and returned to tell about it. These warriors are living evidence of the sacrifice many are making, a concept fuzzy in the abstract but starkly clear when confronted by scar tissue and skin grafts and empty spaces where limbs should be.
“Some of these guys have amazing stories,” Barnes said. “People need to know these guys weren’t curling up in a ball and giving up. They are not hearing it from some senator or general, its coming from the guy on the ground. And they want to go back to where they were hurt.”
‘Still here’
Yet there’s always a downside. The constant barrage of attention can be tiring, and it’s often difficult for the new guys to climb out of their shell and talk with reporters or celebrities.
Sgt. Jason Simms of Philadelphia remembers doing an interview with a hometown newspaper and being irked while telling his story countless times.
But Simms — who suffered major burns to his face and arms, nerve damage and a broken leg in July 2004 when his light armored vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Iraq — said it’s another thing you get used to.
“It’s good to talk about,” he said.” If someone wants to hear my story, I’ll tell them. I won’t go up to anyone ,but if they ask, I’ll tell them. We’re so used to it.”
Simms is one of the originals at the barracks and says many of the barrack’s amenities — including a recreation room with computers and a lounge with plush chairs, a big-screen TV and videogame systems — are there in part because of the good buzz.
“We had nothing, then reporters starting coming down and doing stories, then all this stuff started showing up,” he said.
Navy Corpsman First Class Glenn Minney, a 39-year-old reservist with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines’ “Lucky Lima” Company, was wounded in Haditha, Iraq, by a mortar that struck 30 feet from where he was standing. He suffered serious eye and brain injuries.
Now, Minney sometimes struggles with his words. He’s blind in one eye and partially blind in the other.
“So these guys purposely move the furniture around on me,” he joked.
He loves the media attention because he wants America to know their stories.
“People need to see what’s going on, that the military is not forgetting about the injured Marines and sailors,” he said. “I’m a corpsman and I can’t see, but I’m still here.”
Barnes said the attention also gives them the simple but valuable realization that people stand behind them.
“They get to meet people they’ll never get to meet otherwise,” he said. “It gives them a chance to see that people outside the military do care.”
Contact staff writer Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 229.
Ellie