thedrifter
10-30-07, 07:47 AM
Monday, October 29, 2007
Part 1: Marine fights new battle
Part 1: David Lind, who lost both legs in Iraq, works to create a new life, with help from friends and family.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
OCEANSIDE – It might as well be Christmas time at David Lind's house.
Drills are whirring in the bathroom, with two men putting in a new sliding entry door.
Lind is given a gleaming knife encased in a glass and wooden box, a replica of one used by Sylvester Stallone in his first "Rambo" movie.
In the living room, a new 50-inch flat-screen television is being installed.
Lind is excited. The TV has arrived during a football season in full swing.
Born in a small town north of Pittsburgh, Penn., the Camp Pendleton-based career Marine is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
The work going on at his house recently and the new items and services are all gifts. Small tokens of appreciation for the sacrifice Lind made on the battlefield: He lost both legs in a June roadside bomb blast in the Anbar province of Iraq.
"It's hard not to feel that I am receiving too much either attention or care or benefits," Lind says.
"I want to be most known for, most appreciated … as a person, as a friend, as a husband, as a father, as a normal guy," he adds. "I don't want to be known or appreciated because of my legs. I don't look at my legs as a disability, they are part of me, they help describe me but they don't define me."
After three tours in Iraq, the 36-year-old is fighting a whole different battle now. The objectives: to persevere in the face of the disability, daily therapy sessions to carve out a new life, and being there for his wife and three children.
The road isn't easy. But Lind is content not just to walk down this path. He wants to run.
HELPING HANDS
Sporting a white T-shirt, blue shorts and black Nike Airs at the end of his prosthetic legs, Lind places one hand on the dining table and the other on the wall behind him to push himself up.
In a few quick paces, Lind is in the kitchen brewing coffee.
Meanwhile, Vietnam veterans and former Marines Mike Dmytriw and Tom Riley, who have traveled from Orange County again this week, are quietly at work in Lind's bathroom.
Neither has asked Lind the details of how he lost his legs. They say they don't need to. What the Habitat for Humanity of Orange County volunteers feel compelled to do is help make his life a bit easier.
They were tapped by a contact at Camp Pendleton to aid Lind by making his bathroom handicap accessible.
"He's paid his price," says Riley, 67, of Newport Beach. "It's our turn now."
"When we came back from Vietnam we were really looked down upon by America," Riley continues. "It's not right that a man serves his country and doesn't have some recognition for it."
The retired 40-year general contractor recalled seeing about five Marines earlier this year at the base's Wounded Warrior Center – which became a battalion during the summer – he thought were watching television. When he took a closer look, the TV wasn't turned on and the young faces appeared simply dazed, staring into space.
In telling the story outside Lind's home, Riley buries his face in his right hand and weeps.
"I think it's tougher today," he says. "These young men are in harm's way all the time. We had problems in Vietnam with snipers and things but these young men, every time they go forth, they're in harm's way."
Dmytriw, 58, of Aliso Viejo, nearly lost his left hand after a bullet pierced his wrist in 1969 in the Danang Province of Vietnam. Several surgeries and nearly 2½ years in a cast later, his hand was saved.
"I know exactly how (Lind) got hurt," he says. "He doesn't have to tell me the story. I have all the respect for him in the world."
Despite the obstacles he faces now, Lind still looks at life with an optimist's eye.
He laughs as he points out that he's an inch taller, now standing 6 feet, because of his prosthetic limbs. His injury has brought him friends and a true appreciation for life.
"The blessings that I have received from this are completely unique and unfathomable," Lind says. "The ability to look at the good things and find the pleasure in simple things has been made very aware to me."
The athletic man who wrestled, played soccer and ran cross country in high school, hopes to return to his Marine command next year and serve out another two years. Lind is scheduled to be promoted to master sergeant next month.
INTO COMBAT
Soon after graduating with about 160 students in Titusville, Penn., Lind joined the Marine Corps in 1989. He said he didn't much care for college back then and the Corps grew on him.
The eldest of four siblings would go on five combat missions, starting with Desert Shield/Desert Storm and to Afghanistan right after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Lind's first tour of Iraq came in November 2003, a two-month stint, soon after he had remarried and hadn't had a chance to go on his honeymoon. He returned again for an eight-month tour in 2005.
He was called up once more last April on what was to be a fateful mission as a platoon sergeant with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, a specially trained unit of Marines that conducts counter-sniper, counter-smuggling and other operations.
During a nighttime troop movement in June, a Humvee carrying Lind and four others was bringing up the rear in a six-vehicle convoy when it went over a roadside bomb north of Karma, a city about 50 miles west of Baghdad. Navy Corpsmen worked frantically to save his life.
Less than four months later, Lind has made great strides in his recovery.
He took his first steps using prosthetic limbs only two months after he lost his legs. He hopes to be back at work at Camp Pendleton by January.
One of Lind's goals is that when he wears trousers, no one should be able to tell that he has prosthetic limbs.
But there was a time on the battlefield when he contemplated suicide.
Contact the writer: 949-465-5424 or vjolly@ocregister.com
Ellie
Part 1: Marine fights new battle
Part 1: David Lind, who lost both legs in Iraq, works to create a new life, with help from friends and family.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
OCEANSIDE – It might as well be Christmas time at David Lind's house.
Drills are whirring in the bathroom, with two men putting in a new sliding entry door.
Lind is given a gleaming knife encased in a glass and wooden box, a replica of one used by Sylvester Stallone in his first "Rambo" movie.
In the living room, a new 50-inch flat-screen television is being installed.
Lind is excited. The TV has arrived during a football season in full swing.
Born in a small town north of Pittsburgh, Penn., the Camp Pendleton-based career Marine is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
The work going on at his house recently and the new items and services are all gifts. Small tokens of appreciation for the sacrifice Lind made on the battlefield: He lost both legs in a June roadside bomb blast in the Anbar province of Iraq.
"It's hard not to feel that I am receiving too much either attention or care or benefits," Lind says.
"I want to be most known for, most appreciated … as a person, as a friend, as a husband, as a father, as a normal guy," he adds. "I don't want to be known or appreciated because of my legs. I don't look at my legs as a disability, they are part of me, they help describe me but they don't define me."
After three tours in Iraq, the 36-year-old is fighting a whole different battle now. The objectives: to persevere in the face of the disability, daily therapy sessions to carve out a new life, and being there for his wife and three children.
The road isn't easy. But Lind is content not just to walk down this path. He wants to run.
HELPING HANDS
Sporting a white T-shirt, blue shorts and black Nike Airs at the end of his prosthetic legs, Lind places one hand on the dining table and the other on the wall behind him to push himself up.
In a few quick paces, Lind is in the kitchen brewing coffee.
Meanwhile, Vietnam veterans and former Marines Mike Dmytriw and Tom Riley, who have traveled from Orange County again this week, are quietly at work in Lind's bathroom.
Neither has asked Lind the details of how he lost his legs. They say they don't need to. What the Habitat for Humanity of Orange County volunteers feel compelled to do is help make his life a bit easier.
They were tapped by a contact at Camp Pendleton to aid Lind by making his bathroom handicap accessible.
"He's paid his price," says Riley, 67, of Newport Beach. "It's our turn now."
"When we came back from Vietnam we were really looked down upon by America," Riley continues. "It's not right that a man serves his country and doesn't have some recognition for it."
The retired 40-year general contractor recalled seeing about five Marines earlier this year at the base's Wounded Warrior Center – which became a battalion during the summer – he thought were watching television. When he took a closer look, the TV wasn't turned on and the young faces appeared simply dazed, staring into space.
In telling the story outside Lind's home, Riley buries his face in his right hand and weeps.
"I think it's tougher today," he says. "These young men are in harm's way all the time. We had problems in Vietnam with snipers and things but these young men, every time they go forth, they're in harm's way."
Dmytriw, 58, of Aliso Viejo, nearly lost his left hand after a bullet pierced his wrist in 1969 in the Danang Province of Vietnam. Several surgeries and nearly 2½ years in a cast later, his hand was saved.
"I know exactly how (Lind) got hurt," he says. "He doesn't have to tell me the story. I have all the respect for him in the world."
Despite the obstacles he faces now, Lind still looks at life with an optimist's eye.
He laughs as he points out that he's an inch taller, now standing 6 feet, because of his prosthetic limbs. His injury has brought him friends and a true appreciation for life.
"The blessings that I have received from this are completely unique and unfathomable," Lind says. "The ability to look at the good things and find the pleasure in simple things has been made very aware to me."
The athletic man who wrestled, played soccer and ran cross country in high school, hopes to return to his Marine command next year and serve out another two years. Lind is scheduled to be promoted to master sergeant next month.
INTO COMBAT
Soon after graduating with about 160 students in Titusville, Penn., Lind joined the Marine Corps in 1989. He said he didn't much care for college back then and the Corps grew on him.
The eldest of four siblings would go on five combat missions, starting with Desert Shield/Desert Storm and to Afghanistan right after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Lind's first tour of Iraq came in November 2003, a two-month stint, soon after he had remarried and hadn't had a chance to go on his honeymoon. He returned again for an eight-month tour in 2005.
He was called up once more last April on what was to be a fateful mission as a platoon sergeant with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, a specially trained unit of Marines that conducts counter-sniper, counter-smuggling and other operations.
During a nighttime troop movement in June, a Humvee carrying Lind and four others was bringing up the rear in a six-vehicle convoy when it went over a roadside bomb north of Karma, a city about 50 miles west of Baghdad. Navy Corpsmen worked frantically to save his life.
Less than four months later, Lind has made great strides in his recovery.
He took his first steps using prosthetic limbs only two months after he lost his legs. He hopes to be back at work at Camp Pendleton by January.
One of Lind's goals is that when he wears trousers, no one should be able to tell that he has prosthetic limbs.
But there was a time on the battlefield when he contemplated suicide.
Contact the writer: 949-465-5424 or vjolly@ocregister.com
Ellie