by Harry Burlington

Created on: October 05, 2008   Last Updated: October 08, 2008

When the mortars quit falling, bullets stopped whizzing by my head, explosions from IED's fell silent on a hot August night in Balad, Iraq. My deployment to Baghdad, Iraq was suppose to last twelve to fifteen months, but in my sixth month of combat operations, my tour was cut short from an insurgent mortar launched a mile away that landed inside my base. I tore several ligaments in my right wrist after a mortar landed twenty feet from me and exploded. The concussion of the blast blew me off the top of a Humvee while, I was assisting one of my soldiers mounting a weapon on the turret. After several days of acute treatment by the base medical personnel, my right hand becoming increasingly less effective. They decided I needed to return to Germany, where my duty station was located, and have a MRI done. They flew me by UH-60 (Blackhawk helicopter) from Baghdad to Balad Air Base, sixty miles North of Baghdad. Balad is the second stop,were all wounded and injured American military service members, get transported for stabilization while making the amazing "Flights of Life" to Landstuhl, Germany. Then stay in Germany for a determined amount of time for recovery, then making the third "Flight of Life" on to the U.S. for further treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Upon completion of medical treatments, over a course of six months, my rear-detachment commander placed me behind a desk and pushing paper around.

After pleading for months to return with my unit in Baghdad. They denied my request repeatedly, stating my hand would hinder my ability to execute missions, protect my comrades and myself in combat. Being devastated, I went to my doctor and asked to be waivered and be put back on "deployable status." I was denied and sent back to my rear-detachment emotionally broken and with news that my hand would not ever be fully mobile again and would suffer from chronic pain and arthritis for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, that has came true and my right hand is disabled.

A few weeks later, my rear-commander asked me to reenlist for five more years, I weighed my options and asked all kinds of questions. All answers led to me working behind a desk for the next twelve years, until retirement, and not leading troops. I could not do that and chose to separate from the Army in 2005 and finish my college education.

My first foot-steps in the civilian world would become the hardest journey of my life and the last three years have been

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