thedrifter
10-05-06, 08:51 AM
Wounded EL Marine Doing Well, Father Says
Shot in Iraq, Rathbun back in the States and recovering at Bethesda
By Kyn Tolson
Marine Sgt. Terry Rathbun Jr., who was wounded last week in Fallujah, Iraq, is now at Bethesda Naval Hospital recovering from a rifle shot that penetrated his right cheek and traveled out the back of his neck.
The 35-year-old East Lyme man has had jaw surgery, but on Wednesday he was breathing on his own and in good spirits, according to his father, Terry Rathbun Sr., who is at the Maryland hospital with his son.
Sgt. Rathbun was brought to Bethesda shortly before midnight Tuesday, after being evacuated from Germany, where he was first taken and operated on after being shot while on patrol.
“I cannot believe it, how good the news is,” his father said by telephone Wednesday evening. “When I first saw him last night, I just couldn't believe it. His face is pretty swollen, but he's alert. He has a (tracheotomy), but he's breathing on his own. He's good, real good.”
In stable condition, Rathbun was nonetheless taken to the hospital's intensive-care unit, but he may have been moved to a ward sometime late Wednesday or early today, his father said.
Doctors have told Rathbun's father that his son will later have plastic surgery for the scarring from the operation, when a metal plate was put in his jaw.
“But that will come after he heals,” Rathbun Sr. said, adding that, for now, his son communicates by writing on a clipboard because his jaw is wired shut.
Doctors have also told him, he said, that little other injury is apparent.
“But another half-inch in another direction,” Rathbun Sr. said, referring to the bullet entry, “and things probably would have turned out a lot different.”
The details of the shooting in Fallujah have not been released, but another Marine, Capt. Harry Thompson of Las Vegas, suffered a collapsed lung in the same attack, which occurred when both men and others were patroling the streets. Fallujah, one of the biggest cities in the largely Sunni-populated al Anbar province, has been a stronghold of insurgency.
Sgt. Rathbun and Thompson are in Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, which has been in Fallujah since early April. The Reserves battalion of some 1,000 infantrymen is now in the final stages of turning over its war duties to Marine replacements.
Rathbun Sr. said he intends to stay with his son until Friday, when he'll return to Niantic, because his wife, Diane, is seriously ill from heart problems and diabetes.
“She was hospitalized again this afternoon,” he said, adding that his grown daughter, Lynn Dean, “is on the homefront, taking care of things there while I'm down here.”
Ellie
Shot in Iraq, Rathbun back in the States and recovering at Bethesda
By Kyn Tolson
Marine Sgt. Terry Rathbun Jr., who was wounded last week in Fallujah, Iraq, is now at Bethesda Naval Hospital recovering from a rifle shot that penetrated his right cheek and traveled out the back of his neck.
The 35-year-old East Lyme man has had jaw surgery, but on Wednesday he was breathing on his own and in good spirits, according to his father, Terry Rathbun Sr., who is at the Maryland hospital with his son.
Sgt. Rathbun was brought to Bethesda shortly before midnight Tuesday, after being evacuated from Germany, where he was first taken and operated on after being shot while on patrol.
“I cannot believe it, how good the news is,” his father said by telephone Wednesday evening. “When I first saw him last night, I just couldn't believe it. His face is pretty swollen, but he's alert. He has a (tracheotomy), but he's breathing on his own. He's good, real good.”
In stable condition, Rathbun was nonetheless taken to the hospital's intensive-care unit, but he may have been moved to a ward sometime late Wednesday or early today, his father said.
Doctors have told Rathbun's father that his son will later have plastic surgery for the scarring from the operation, when a metal plate was put in his jaw.
“But that will come after he heals,” Rathbun Sr. said, adding that, for now, his son communicates by writing on a clipboard because his jaw is wired shut.
Doctors have also told him, he said, that little other injury is apparent.
“But another half-inch in another direction,” Rathbun Sr. said, referring to the bullet entry, “and things probably would have turned out a lot different.”
The details of the shooting in Fallujah have not been released, but another Marine, Capt. Harry Thompson of Las Vegas, suffered a collapsed lung in the same attack, which occurred when both men and others were patroling the streets. Fallujah, one of the biggest cities in the largely Sunni-populated al Anbar province, has been a stronghold of insurgency.
Sgt. Rathbun and Thompson are in Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, which has been in Fallujah since early April. The Reserves battalion of some 1,000 infantrymen is now in the final stages of turning over its war duties to Marine replacements.
Rathbun Sr. said he intends to stay with his son until Friday, when he'll return to Niantic, because his wife, Diane, is seriously ill from heart problems and diabetes.
“She was hospitalized again this afternoon,” he said, adding that his grown daughter, Lynn Dean, “is on the homefront, taking care of things there while I'm down here.”
Ellie