When I think of what one soldier probably faces in on afternoon in Iraq or Afghanistan, my life's quirky twists of fate are probably rather lame-and-tame. None-the-less, my stories are all I have. We are not all in combat all the time. Hell, some of the crap I have lived through in America, makes a couple of cities I visited in Iraq look rather normal. That all being as it may, when I was in the Army back in 1975, I managed to step on a sharp object on the artillery range in Germany and got a good case of Septicemia. Back home we used to call it blood poisoning. Being 19 years old, I had know idea how sick I was becoming. I just thought I had a good case of the flu.
As my combat engineer unit plodded through the drudgery of an assignment up by the Czechoslovakian border, I got sicker and sicker. Eventually, unable to even hold my head up, my Lieutenant said, "Keith you fool, take your sick ass to the Medics." A friend in my squad drove the bumpy route to the MASH unit. Yes, up by the border they had a mobile clinic set up. It was surprisingly just like the TV show - minus the wounded soldiers.
"You ain't got the flu son," the Doc said. "Drop you pants, something else is wrong." When I revealed my right leg, the Doc said, "Damn, boy. Do you realize how close to dying you are. The infection is clear up to your groin." He found the epicenter of where some of the artillery shrapnel still was lodged in my foot. Being from the farm, I guess I did not have very good self diagnosis ability. If you had a pain on the farm, you just toughed it out.
The back story was that while I spent two weeks in the field hospital, my friend never relayed my situation to my unit. And in the mean time, my Lieutenant had been called back to head quarters in Nuremberg. Subsequently, I was listed as AWOL for two weeks. My friend thought that was the biggest funny deal. On release from the field hospital, the Doc said, "No walking for a couple days." But, when I called my unit to come pick me up, the duty sergeant called me a "pussy" and said no Jeep was available. Besides, he claimed I was, "A malingering sissy," and, "Malingering sissies don't deserve a ride." I walked the three miles back to camp on my bad leg.
Three days later I was back in the field hospital, this time for three weeks. The Doc was not happy and apparently some shit hit somebody's fan back in my unit - a certain duty sergeant I heard. At any rate, Ol' Sarge never spoke to me again.
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Sergeant Benjamin C. Edinger, 24, of Green Bay who died on November 23, 2004, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, from injuries he receive during enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq, on November 14. Sgt. Edinger suffered shrapnel wounds from a homemade bomb. Benjamin was the 29th Wisconsin soldier killed in the war in Iraq since the spring of 2003. This was his second tour of duty in Iraq after taking part in the first wave of the war in March of 2003. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Benjamin was a 1999 graduate of Green Bay West High School. He had attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for a time. Sergeant Edinger was a member of the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.
3,841 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
451 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
28,327 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,708 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
81 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
6 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
122 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
