thedrifter
01-01-08, 08:31 AM
Butte man wins Purple Heart for each of two tours of duty in Iraq
By JOHN GRANT EMEIGH, The Montana Standard - 01/01/08
Relaxing drives in the country just aren’t possible these days for Richard Setterstrom.
After the Humvee he was driving was blown up along a road south of Fallujah last year, driving makes Setterstrom a little nervous.
“When I’m driving around here and I see something on the side of the road, I automatically drive on the other side of the road. I’m pretty watchful now — all the time,” he said from the safety of his living room near Standby Creek Road, far from the insurgency and the improvised explosive devices of war-torn Iraq.
Though the war is happening on the other side of the globe, Setterstrom still feels its effects despite being back in Butte.
At 22, Setterstrom speaks with a confident authority and has the look in his eyes of someone who has seen more during those years than he should have. His back aches, his joints are arthritic and he wears a hearing aid in his left ear.
He’s a prime example of how quickly war can make young men older.
On Monday, Setterstrom was waiting to receive his Purple Heart for the wounds suffered in that roadside bomb attack in May 2006. It’s his second Purple Heart in the two tours of duty he served in Iraq as a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines.
He considered going back for a third tour, but decided he had pushed his luck far enough.
“They always say the third time’s a charm,” he said with a sardonic grin.
Setterstrom was first injured Dec. 12, 2005, while he and fellow members of 3rd Battalion 5th Marines were clearing houses of enemy combatants through a section of Fallujah. Setterstrom was pounding a dwelling with .50-caliber rounds when something inside exploded. A piece of shrapnel from the explosion lodged just above his right knee.
“It felt like someone hit me in the kneecap with a baseball,” Setterstrom said.
A short time later he examined his knee and noticed it was bleeding. Despite having a hunk of metal embedded in his leg, Setterstrom continued with his mission for the next several hours.
The piece of shrapnel remains in his leg.
Setterstrom was the victim of another explosion during his second tour in Iraq, just five months after his first injury. His battalion was patrolling a major thoroughfare near the embattled city of Fallujah.
Setterstrom drove a Humvee in a convoy that encountered daily IED attacks. Setterstrom said they knew who was making the IEDs: a Jordanian who was hired by the insurgency to kill as many Marines as possible.
“He was pretty good at what he did — he didn’t kill anyone, but he put a lot of us out of commission,” Setterstrom said.
It was this same mercenary bomber who finally put Setterstrom out of commission.
The IED was buried under a slight mound of dirt in the road. Setterstrom remembers it was about dusk that May 8, 2006, and visibility was low. He had just rounded a corner in his Humvee, and it was too late to avoid the mound.
Bang!
The explosion shook the ground. Fortunately for Setterstrom and his passenger, the Humvee took the brunt of the blast. But the force of the explosion beat up the two men badly.
“I didn’t remember anything for five minutes after the explosion because the shock rattled me so much,” he said.
The blast tore a joint in his shoulder, pulled his spine and gave him a serious concussion.
“My brain swelled up a little bit,” he said.
Setterstrom still gets headaches and feels pain in his joints throughout his body as a result of the injuries suffered in the attack.
Despite the pain, Setterstrom believes he could have gone back to Iraq for a third tour and effectively have done his job. However, he decided two tours were enough and now works as an assayer for the Golden Sunlight Mine.
His mother, Vivian, was happy he decided to stay home.
“I was praying he wouldn’t go back,” she said. “I know it was a difficult decision for him, because he comes from a military family.”
Setterstrom is humble about his service in Iraq and the Purple Hearts he was awarded.
“I just think of it as part of my job,” he said, then paused for a moment. “We did a good job over there.”
Ellie
By JOHN GRANT EMEIGH, The Montana Standard - 01/01/08
Relaxing drives in the country just aren’t possible these days for Richard Setterstrom.
After the Humvee he was driving was blown up along a road south of Fallujah last year, driving makes Setterstrom a little nervous.
“When I’m driving around here and I see something on the side of the road, I automatically drive on the other side of the road. I’m pretty watchful now — all the time,” he said from the safety of his living room near Standby Creek Road, far from the insurgency and the improvised explosive devices of war-torn Iraq.
Though the war is happening on the other side of the globe, Setterstrom still feels its effects despite being back in Butte.
At 22, Setterstrom speaks with a confident authority and has the look in his eyes of someone who has seen more during those years than he should have. His back aches, his joints are arthritic and he wears a hearing aid in his left ear.
He’s a prime example of how quickly war can make young men older.
On Monday, Setterstrom was waiting to receive his Purple Heart for the wounds suffered in that roadside bomb attack in May 2006. It’s his second Purple Heart in the two tours of duty he served in Iraq as a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines.
He considered going back for a third tour, but decided he had pushed his luck far enough.
“They always say the third time’s a charm,” he said with a sardonic grin.
Setterstrom was first injured Dec. 12, 2005, while he and fellow members of 3rd Battalion 5th Marines were clearing houses of enemy combatants through a section of Fallujah. Setterstrom was pounding a dwelling with .50-caliber rounds when something inside exploded. A piece of shrapnel from the explosion lodged just above his right knee.
“It felt like someone hit me in the kneecap with a baseball,” Setterstrom said.
A short time later he examined his knee and noticed it was bleeding. Despite having a hunk of metal embedded in his leg, Setterstrom continued with his mission for the next several hours.
The piece of shrapnel remains in his leg.
Setterstrom was the victim of another explosion during his second tour in Iraq, just five months after his first injury. His battalion was patrolling a major thoroughfare near the embattled city of Fallujah.
Setterstrom drove a Humvee in a convoy that encountered daily IED attacks. Setterstrom said they knew who was making the IEDs: a Jordanian who was hired by the insurgency to kill as many Marines as possible.
“He was pretty good at what he did — he didn’t kill anyone, but he put a lot of us out of commission,” Setterstrom said.
It was this same mercenary bomber who finally put Setterstrom out of commission.
The IED was buried under a slight mound of dirt in the road. Setterstrom remembers it was about dusk that May 8, 2006, and visibility was low. He had just rounded a corner in his Humvee, and it was too late to avoid the mound.
Bang!
The explosion shook the ground. Fortunately for Setterstrom and his passenger, the Humvee took the brunt of the blast. But the force of the explosion beat up the two men badly.
“I didn’t remember anything for five minutes after the explosion because the shock rattled me so much,” he said.
The blast tore a joint in his shoulder, pulled his spine and gave him a serious concussion.
“My brain swelled up a little bit,” he said.
Setterstrom still gets headaches and feels pain in his joints throughout his body as a result of the injuries suffered in the attack.
Despite the pain, Setterstrom believes he could have gone back to Iraq for a third tour and effectively have done his job. However, he decided two tours were enough and now works as an assayer for the Golden Sunlight Mine.
His mother, Vivian, was happy he decided to stay home.
“I was praying he wouldn’t go back,” she said. “I know it was a difficult decision for him, because he comes from a military family.”
Setterstrom is humble about his service in Iraq and the Purple Hearts he was awarded.
“I just think of it as part of my job,” he said, then paused for a moment. “We did a good job over there.”
Ellie