thedrifter
03-02-07, 06:59 AM
Wounded Marine keeps his cool despite uncertain future
By KATE HENDERSON, Staff Writer
khenderson@jg-tc.com
When Darlene Matheson of Sullivan answered the phone one day late last year, the caller greeted her with a mixed message.
Her son, John Grissom, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Marines, was on the other end.
“The good news is I have all my limbs,” Matheson recalls him saying. “The bad news is I just can’t hear very well.”
Grissom, 28, who grew up in Charleston and is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Gene Myers of Charleston and Mr. and Mrs. Leon Grissom of Kansas, suffered a severely perforated ear drum in the right ear and a head injury in November.
The humvee in which he was riding on while on patrol in Iraq ran over approximately 60 pounds of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, linked to propane tanks.
“We had just left our patrol base and all of a sudden I ran over something and it went ‘boom!’” Grissom recalled. “After the explosion, my driver was completely knocked out and the humvee I was in was completely unmovable; it had blown the back portion of the vehicle out.”
Grissom said after he got out from under the damaged vehicle, he soon realized he couldn’t hear anything. He continued to assess his situation, get help for his comrades and order his men to return fire on insurgents who were already bombarding them with small arms fire.
“The backup finally arrived, and once they did, I did a quick turnover,” Grissom said.
Grissom ended up receiving treatment in the field and didn’t realize the hearing loss and brain injuries were serious.
“I operated for another two weeks out there,” Grissom said by telephone this week from Hawaii as he awaited surgery. “At the end of two weeks I still couldn’t hear and blood was still coming out of my ears.”
At that point, he was sent to Baghdad, then to Hawaii for the surgery, which he had Wednesday.
Matheson said she was anxious and “kind of numb” being so far away and not knowing the extent of the damage.
“They’re so far away you can’t just run over and ask if they’re all right,” she said. “You can’t hold their hand.”
Matheson said she suspects her son was putting on his best performance for his mom.
“He sounded upbeat, which he’s good at doing with his mom,” she said.
Matheson saw Grissom a month later when he was home on leave at Christmas.
For Grissom, who joined the Marines in 1998, the war in Iraq isn’t his first deployment. Grissom said he was deployed shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, again from September of 2005 until April of 2006, and most recently deployed shortly after Sept. 11, 2006.
Joining the Marines wasn’t always his plan, but he said once he got there, he liked the direction his life was going and decided to stay until he wasn’t having fun or couldn’t do the job. Grissom attended Lake Land College and was a speech communications major at Eastern Illinois University.
After Grissom’s surgery Wednesday to repair his right ear drum, Matheson said she spoke to him and he was on his way back to his apartment in Hawaii and doing fine. Grissom said there will be some recovery time after his surgery and he won’t know what his next move is until he is evaluated.
“Right now we’ve got a lot of options that are open to us,” Grissom explained. “My options will be given to me after I fully recover.”
Grissom said what happened is all part of the job.
“I don’t feel like I’m any more special or lucky or unlucky than the next person,” he said. “That’s the way things go. You do the best you can, walk out and apply it every day. Every once in a while, luck’s on your side; every once in a while it’s not.”
Matheson said she’s hoping to see Grissom sometime in May if he is granted permission to go home.
Grissom also has two sisters in the area: Jamie Mayhall of Charleston and Raven Matheson of Sullivan.
Contact Kate Henderson at khenderson@jg-tc.com or 238-6858
Ellie
By KATE HENDERSON, Staff Writer
khenderson@jg-tc.com
When Darlene Matheson of Sullivan answered the phone one day late last year, the caller greeted her with a mixed message.
Her son, John Grissom, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Marines, was on the other end.
“The good news is I have all my limbs,” Matheson recalls him saying. “The bad news is I just can’t hear very well.”
Grissom, 28, who grew up in Charleston and is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Gene Myers of Charleston and Mr. and Mrs. Leon Grissom of Kansas, suffered a severely perforated ear drum in the right ear and a head injury in November.
The humvee in which he was riding on while on patrol in Iraq ran over approximately 60 pounds of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, linked to propane tanks.
“We had just left our patrol base and all of a sudden I ran over something and it went ‘boom!’” Grissom recalled. “After the explosion, my driver was completely knocked out and the humvee I was in was completely unmovable; it had blown the back portion of the vehicle out.”
Grissom said after he got out from under the damaged vehicle, he soon realized he couldn’t hear anything. He continued to assess his situation, get help for his comrades and order his men to return fire on insurgents who were already bombarding them with small arms fire.
“The backup finally arrived, and once they did, I did a quick turnover,” Grissom said.
Grissom ended up receiving treatment in the field and didn’t realize the hearing loss and brain injuries were serious.
“I operated for another two weeks out there,” Grissom said by telephone this week from Hawaii as he awaited surgery. “At the end of two weeks I still couldn’t hear and blood was still coming out of my ears.”
At that point, he was sent to Baghdad, then to Hawaii for the surgery, which he had Wednesday.
Matheson said she was anxious and “kind of numb” being so far away and not knowing the extent of the damage.
“They’re so far away you can’t just run over and ask if they’re all right,” she said. “You can’t hold their hand.”
Matheson said she suspects her son was putting on his best performance for his mom.
“He sounded upbeat, which he’s good at doing with his mom,” she said.
Matheson saw Grissom a month later when he was home on leave at Christmas.
For Grissom, who joined the Marines in 1998, the war in Iraq isn’t his first deployment. Grissom said he was deployed shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, again from September of 2005 until April of 2006, and most recently deployed shortly after Sept. 11, 2006.
Joining the Marines wasn’t always his plan, but he said once he got there, he liked the direction his life was going and decided to stay until he wasn’t having fun or couldn’t do the job. Grissom attended Lake Land College and was a speech communications major at Eastern Illinois University.
After Grissom’s surgery Wednesday to repair his right ear drum, Matheson said she spoke to him and he was on his way back to his apartment in Hawaii and doing fine. Grissom said there will be some recovery time after his surgery and he won’t know what his next move is until he is evaluated.
“Right now we’ve got a lot of options that are open to us,” Grissom explained. “My options will be given to me after I fully recover.”
Grissom said what happened is all part of the job.
“I don’t feel like I’m any more special or lucky or unlucky than the next person,” he said. “That’s the way things go. You do the best you can, walk out and apply it every day. Every once in a while, luck’s on your side; every once in a while it’s not.”
Matheson said she’s hoping to see Grissom sometime in May if he is granted permission to go home.
Grissom also has two sisters in the area: Jamie Mayhall of Charleston and Raven Matheson of Sullivan.
Contact Kate Henderson at khenderson@jg-tc.com or 238-6858
Ellie