Tribute to David Emme
I ended up lasting a glorious -- "going out in
a blaze of glory" -- seven weeks in Iraq. I was wounded for
the second time on 19 Nov 04. Because of that I am waiting at
Walter Reed Army Hospital to get medically retired.
Of course you already know about the first time I got wounded
in a mortar attack in Mosul. When the initial shell exploded I
was the first one into a bunker with 10 to 15 Infantry dudes piling
in behind me. Then another mortar shell exploded by us, with shrapnel
skipping over every one and hitting me. My luck. First person
in my troop to be wounded. We had never even left the FOB (Forward
Operating Base) before that day.
My unit (2/14 CAV) went to Tal a Far. I was in the advanced party. After four weeks I was put on a mission to truck Iraqi's we had recruited for the Iraqi Police Force to Mosul for training. We were not able to train them due to personnel and equipment support.
We loaded them up on FMTV's. Me, being the Supply Sgt and vehicle commander for supply vehicle, I was gunning on a .50 cal. In the town of Tal a Far, there were no little children out and about. Only teenage boys. I saw several of them give a cut throat sign. I got on the net and told people what I had seen and to keep an eye open because I felt that something would happen to our convoy. We came upon an Iraqi traffic circle. My vehicle had crept up on another FMTV. I told my driver to slow a little when going around the circle to get our distance. That is the last thing I remember. An IED was set off on the left side. I happened to be scanning on my weapon system to the right and was totally exposed to the blast.
When I woke up, I was still in the vehicle. I had no sight or hearing (shrapnel in left eye and left ear drum blown out). I had no sense of who I was or where I was. My driver started yelling at me to get out of the vehicle. I cried. "No," that my head hurt too much (had a penetrating wound to the head). He dragged me down and I fell about six feet. I was wondering why in the heck did this guy cause me to fall 6 feet (I am telling only what I recall -- the story from my point of view -- I am leaving out details that were later told to me by others). He picked me up by my equipment and put my hand on his shoulder and told me to run with him, which I did. I heard my .50 CAL go off and knew why, somewhat. We reached the safety of a Stryker vehicle and took off. In that great vehicle I got some of my vision back in my right eye. It had taken us about 40 minutes to get to the spot where we were attacked, and about ten minutes to get back to the FOB. Once the ramp of the Striker came down, I tried to walk, figuring that a medic would be outside to get me to the aid station.
I awoke ten days later from a coma at Walter Reed. I did not know where I was when I woke up or why. Doctors told me, I had been Medevac’d to Mosul, loaded on a C 150 and flown to Baghdad where they did surgery. They took a good sized hunk of skull off on the left side because my brain swelled up twice the size of a normal brain. I was flown to Germany then Walter Reed.
I have shrapnel in my brain, over 50% loss
of hearing. To replace the part of my skull -- roughly a bit bigger
than the size of my hand – that the doctors had cut away,
I got a prosthetic skull. They told me I had serious TBI, Traumatic
Brain Injury. I have Aphasia which means you cannot remember what
things are called. Sometimes I get lost in conversations for no
apparent reason. Many tell me jokingly that happens to them all
the time. But, when it never occurred before you got wounded,
it is no laughing matter. Sometimes I get irritated at hearing
that. I know they are just trying to comfort me – but it
doesn’t. You might be forgetful, but not because you were
wounded as I was. To those people it is a natural process or the
way God made them, but not how God created me. I never say
anything about this though. I got most of my mental faculties
back.
The cartridge in my neck was ruptured. It has since healed. Because of that I have some slippage of neck bones which could guillotine the spinal chord and cause me to lose the use of limbs etc. Obviously, no more football or rugby for me. I have a major loss of hearing in my left ear and some loss in my right ear. My vision is now different in both eyes. Sometimes when reading something on paper or the computer I occasionally miss what is written. I had two teeth blown out of my mouth and I am currently waiting for new teeth to be made. A hole in my leg has healed. I have some cool scars on my face. Chicks dig scars, you can tell any story you want of how they got there.
I eventually was told the parts of the
story I don’t remember. When the IED blew, several things
happened. First, there were about 25 insurgents trying to shoot
up my vehicle. (I was the most severely wounded, no one got shot.)
Once I was out of the vehicle (with bullets snapping at our feet.)
SFC Podplesky got on my .50 Cal and started blasting everything.
Cars, people, buildings. There were insurgents shooting from the
ground inside and on top of buildings. Several insurgents started
rushing the vehicle and some NCO's on the ground shot them at
point blank range (within 25 meters.) There were at least four
insurgents shooting RPG’s (Rocket Propelled Grenades) at
us. Two shooters in front of us and two to the left of us. A car
bomb sped towards our convoy. SFC Podplesky and two or three others
with .50 Cal's and small arms fire, took the vehicle out before
it could do any damage. The QRF headed out from our base
when they got the word that this was going on. When they did,
insurgents started clogging the road with traffic from vehicles
to slow or stop them. They began smashing vehicles off the road
and causing cars and trucks to crash and flip. Quite a few people
in those vehicles were lost trying to do that. Apparently the
plan had been to destroy the whole convoy. Needless to say they
did not succeed. Most of my unit was on the border. When they
came back they went out to that area and conducted combat operations
for 13 hours.
When I finally managed to contact people from WRAMC, I was
told that every one thought I was dead. When I went back to Ft.
Lewis for our Unit Ball, one of our medics told me that I did
die. Twice. Once in the Aid Station and once in the Medevac chopper.
They had to bring me back using CPR (thank God for Medics). Interestingly
enough, I do not remember seeing any white light or anything.
Now on to my future. I am getting out and hope to attend Muhlenberg College where I plan to study Business Management. I plan to find paid internships with defense contractors or a government agency in the summer time. I should be getting 100 percent from the VA once I am out -- should be close to 100 percent from the Army side. Once I am out of school, I will probably work for a defense contractor or a government agency. I would like to be working with a Stryker BDE or overseas (Japan, Germany)
Update: I should be retired within the next month or two. Only
got 30 % from the Army.
Sgt David Emme
C-4
Vice President Dick Chenney and
SGT David Emme