On returning to the U.S., some vets feel lucky but lost

< Previous page
Next page >

Dozens were wounded, “from severe shrapnel injuries to head shots,” Zadeh said. Nine soldiers were killed, including Casey Sheehan, whose death would transform his mother, Cindy, into an anti-war activist.

Hour after hour, from about 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., Zadeh worked on bodies and in blood. More than 50 wounded soldiers were treated and evacuated.

“I had never seen action before,” Zadeh said. “I asked one of my sergeants, ‘Is this the way it’s going to be?’ ”

Zadeh remained in Iraq for a year.

“For the first six months it was really, really active,” he said. “We got mortared. I don’t know the exact number. It was in the 800s. Day-to-day bombardment.”

He returned to Fort Hood, Texas, and the first couple of weeks back were weird, he said. Crowded places — the kind where bombs would explode in Iraq — spooked him.

“Just going to the mall made me nervous, on my toes, on my guard,” he said. “I was kind of jumpy at thunder and lightning.”

He had sleepless nights. They passed, but soon the boredom of stateside military life wore on him.

“There were actually times when I thought, ‘It was better in Iraq,’ ” he said. “I knew it was time to get out.”

When his service was up, he left and returned with his wife, Cynthia, to Overland Park. Zadeh works nights at a sleep lab while he decides where he wants to take his education. Cynthia works nights at Sprint. Mostly, Zadeh said, his family and friends are great and life is good. Being home he already looks back on his service at times with nostalgia.

“I tell people it wasn’t a straight year of hell,” he said. “There were actually some good times over there. It changed my outlook on a lot of things. It kind of forced me to grow up.”

Mostly he feels proud. He tells the story of one night after he returned to Fort Hood. He met another soldier, a guy whom Zadeh had treated during combat after the guy’s leg had been shattered by a roadside bomb.

“He invited me to a poker party,” Zadeh said.

Two of the four other guys at the party had been wounded, too. Scars cut a swath across one soldier’s face. Shrapnel had torn another’s arm. Zadeh looked at them, and they looked back.

“I realized that I had worked on three out of the five guys there,” Zadeh said.

One guy stood up, shook Zadeh’s hand and said, “Thanks for not letting me die.”

•••

Others, meantime, are like Scott Anderson, 25, of Wichita, now a freshman at the University of Kansas.

He joined the Army in July 2000 at age 18 and became an intelligence analyst.

“(I was) the geek with the map,” he says. “Our job was to locate the enemy and tell everyone where they were.”

He hit Iraq in December 2003 for an 11-month tour. Mortar fire into Camp Anaconda, one of the largest bases north of Iraq, was regular.

“I wasn’t out in the thick of things,” he said. “I never got shot at and didn’t get to shoot my weapon, which was fine with me.”

But two friends were killed — one died when his vehicle rolled and exploded, and the other died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

“He took a piece of shrapnel at the base of his skull,” Anderson said.

Anderson was discharged and came home in October 2004. He’s engaged, studying psychology and working as a part-time security guard. If he’s had any issues coming home, he said, it was for a short time in relating to students again.

< Previous page
Next page >

To reach reporter Eric Adler call 816-234-4431 or send e-mail to eadler@kcstar.com | Eric Adler, The Star