DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Spec. Joshua Adams, injured when his Humvee turned over in Iraq, was visited yesterday at Tripler Army Medical Center by 1st Sgt. Donald Troxler and Lt. Col. Sabrina Webb. Adams was one of three Schofield soldiers recovering at Tripler from injuries received in Iraq.
Injured isle troops
itching to rejoin
brothers-in-armsThe soldiers dispute alleged
anti-American sentiments of Iraqis
Despite the rising number of U.S. casualties in Iraq, three injured Schofield Barracks soldiers want to go back as soon as possible.
"I am back in '808' and all my friends are back in Iraq," Spec. Joshua Adams said from his Tripler Army Medical Center hospital bed yesterday. "It's not a good feeling."
Staff Sgt. Grachya "Kaz" Kazanchyan -- a squad leader with the 3rd Platoon of Bravo Company, 65th Engineer Battalion -- added: "No regrets. ... I definitely would go back."
Pfc. Paul Bernard, also a member of 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, said: "It's pretty sad. You're going back because you got hurt and your friends are still going to have to stay there. It's pretty sad to leave your friends behind in a war zone."
All three 25th Infantry Division soldiers were on their first combat deployment. After they were wounded, they were sent to Landstuhl Amy Medical Center in Germany and transferred to Tripler on Sunday.
Kazanchyan and Bernard were wounded in a rocket attack on March 30. Adams broke his collar bone April 4 when his Humvee flipped and rolled onto him.
Adams, a policeman with the 25th Military Police Battalion, and Kazanchyan, a combat engineer whose job includes collecting and exploding discarded weapons and ordnance, said they were surprised at how they were treated by the Iraqis, since media reports left them with the impression that all Americans are hated.
"The attitude of the people surprised me the most," Kazanchyan said. "Soldiers do a lot more than just going out and shooting. ... They go out to schools and help the kids. They provide food and water. It's little things like that which aren't covered in the news. So people get the idea that it's always only bad.
"But when I got there, it was an eye opener. The people liked us. They want us to be here. They are not spitting at us and throwing rocks."
Adams, who enlisted in the Army in 2001, said he also was under the impression before he left Hawaii on Jan. 17 that all Iraqis hated Americans.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Pfc. Paul Bernard and Staff Sgt. Grachya Kazanchyan were in Tripler Army Medical Center Hospital yesterday recovering from shrapnel wounds received from a rocket attack in Iraq.
"But when I got injured," Adams added, "people would stop by to see if I was OK. They kept asking if 'the American was OK.' "
Adams, 20, and Bernard, 22, were discharged from Tripler yesterday and returned to Schofield Barracks to recuperate.
Adams, from Salt Lake City, Utah, expects to be out for at least 12 weeks. His platoon was providing convoy security in Kirkuk when the Humvee he was riding in swerved to avoid a sedan.
"I was standing in the gunner's turret," Adams said, "and someone was holding onto my legs so I wouldn't fall out. At the last second they let go of me and the Humvee rolled on top of me."
Kazanchyan, 22, will remain at Tripler as doctors work to remove rocket shrapnel still lodged in his left leg. Kazanchyan said he has been told he probably won't be able to rejoin his squad before they return to Schofield next year.
Kazanchyan and Bernard were two of 11 2nd Brigade Combat Team members wounded when a 107 mm rocket exploded in their housing area at Kirkuk Air Base.
Bernard and Kazanchyan were relaxing in two separate hootches -- shipping containers that had been converted into living quarters.
"It was around 8 o'clock at night," said Bernard, who is from Hickory, N.C. "We were watching a DVD movie -- 'Freddie vs. Jason' -- and relaxing. For us, every day is a hard day. We get up at 6 a.m. and by the time we leave the 'wire,' it's just after 8:30, and then we aren't back until 5 or 6 that night.
"We spend the day carrying ordnances as small as five pounds to some as big as 125 pounds, taking them to an area where they can be exploded."
Bernard, who has been in uniform for two years, said he was later told that at least a dozen rockets were fired into the compound that night.
"They believe the rocket exploded about 12 feet above the ground" in a walkway between his and Kazanchyan's hootch, Bernard said.
"Shrapnel rained down. There were holes in my ceilings and in the walls. ... Dust was falling from the ceiling, my ears were ringing. I grabbed my flak vests and felt a pain in my foot."
Bernard said it wasn't until he got into a bunker that he realized a piece of shrapnel the size of his dog tags was embedded in his left foot next to his big toe.
Kazanchyan, who gave up a college scholarship to enlist in the Army nearly five years ago, said that besides his left leg, he was hit by shrapnel in his back and right leg.
"My left knee cap was shattered, as well as the bones in my leg," " Kazanchyan said.
He was outfitted with a foot-long metal brace to hold the bones straight. The brace was to be removed yesterday and replaced with a two-piece leg cast.
Kazanchyan, who is from Los Angeles, said rocket attacks occur daily.
"We would get the alarm everyday," said Kazanchyan, who arrived in Kirkuk Feb. 6. "Not that they would hit anything, but every day there was an alert and we have to put on our gear and head for the bunkers."
Kazanchyan hopes his wound won't prevent him from making the Army a career.
"We didn't care about the war glory or who gets the big trophy. ... We do our mission. In order to save lives, we find those large caches of weapons and blow them up. Our main goal was to come home safe."
