(no subject)
Soldier still hospitalized after blast hits patrol
By Jason Alley, The News-Herald
PUBLISHED: March 19, 2006
LINCOLN PARK - Renita Sadowski remembers every moment as if it were seconds ago.
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It began when she got home from work at about 1:30 p.m. March 10. She glanced down at her caller-ID unit and saw that someone had phoned earlier that day from Kentucky.
"I thought, 'I don't know anybody in Kentucky' - and then it hit me," she said. "And I said, 'I ain't calling that number.' But in my heart I knew, so I made the call, as hard as it was."
As she dialed the number to the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Ky., where her son is assigned, Sadowski feared the news she soon would hear.
"They asked if I had heard from my son and I told them, 'No,'" she recalls. "Then they asked if I had someone with me and I told them, 'No, but I want to know what the hell this is about.'
"That's when they said that they had to sorrowfully tell me that my son had been hit by an IED. The first thing I did was scream."
An IED, or improvised explosive device, is a homemade bomb that generally is buried along the roadside and is designed to kill or wound someone as they drive or walk over it.
In this case, the IED went off as Troy Crawford, a 1998 Lincoln Park High School graduate, was walking with his Army convoy west of Baghdad.
The roadside bomb struck Crawford's right side, burning his body and leaving shrapnel wounds in his chest and back. Another soldier also was hit. Both are expected to survive.
Crawford initially was listed in critical condition and hooked up to a ventilator, but his medical condition has improved. The 25-year-old was flown to a military hospital in Germany last Sunday, and was in the intensive care unit there for several days.
His condition stabilized enough that he was flown stateside Friday to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Having first been told that she and her husband, Robert, could fly to Germany to visit their son, Sadowski was disappointed last week when the Army told her they wouldn't be able to make the journey after all.
"The doctors over there make the decision if families get to come," Sadowski said she was told. "Germany is geared toward the soldier. If they don't have to deal with the family, that is great. They don't want us to go in there and hinder their concentration on him."
But on Friday, Sadowski received word that she and her family would be able to fly for free later that day to the nation's capital to see their loved one.
While she called a special hotline number the Army provided several times a day when Crawford was in Germany, Sadowski was never able to speak with her son.
"I'm waiting for that voice," she said.
When they reconnect, Sadowski said, she already knows how the first conversation is going to go.
"If I can keep it together," she said, partially laughing and partially choking back tears, "I'll tell him that he scared the s-- out of me. I love him. We are here to support him no matter what he needs, come hell or high water."
Crawford is on his second tour, having first served in the Marines before renewing his support for the military and switching to the Army.
His latest assignment was similar to the 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down."
"He flies in on a helicopter and slides down on a rope with an assault weapon," Sadowski said. "He'd often go out with the Iraqi military ... to find IEDs and go after insurgents."
With three years left on his contract, it's unknown right now if Crawford will return to active duty or if his wounds will end his career.
"Once he makes the recovery, the military can say, 'We will bring him back or not,'" Sadowski said. "But I do know him and his buns are going to want to go back there."
By Jason Alley, The News-Herald
PUBLISHED: March 19, 2006
LINCOLN PARK - Renita Sadowski remembers every moment as if it were seconds ago.
Advertisement
It began when she got home from work at about 1:30 p.m. March 10. She glanced down at her caller-ID unit and saw that someone had phoned earlier that day from Kentucky.
"I thought, 'I don't know anybody in Kentucky' - and then it hit me," she said. "And I said, 'I ain't calling that number.' But in my heart I knew, so I made the call, as hard as it was."
As she dialed the number to the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Ky., where her son is assigned, Sadowski feared the news she soon would hear.
"They asked if I had heard from my son and I told them, 'No,'" she recalls. "Then they asked if I had someone with me and I told them, 'No, but I want to know what the hell this is about.'
"That's when they said that they had to sorrowfully tell me that my son had been hit by an IED. The first thing I did was scream."
An IED, or improvised explosive device, is a homemade bomb that generally is buried along the roadside and is designed to kill or wound someone as they drive or walk over it.
In this case, the IED went off as Troy Crawford, a 1998 Lincoln Park High School graduate, was walking with his Army convoy west of Baghdad.
The roadside bomb struck Crawford's right side, burning his body and leaving shrapnel wounds in his chest and back. Another soldier also was hit. Both are expected to survive.
Crawford initially was listed in critical condition and hooked up to a ventilator, but his medical condition has improved. The 25-year-old was flown to a military hospital in Germany last Sunday, and was in the intensive care unit there for several days.
His condition stabilized enough that he was flown stateside Friday to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Having first been told that she and her husband, Robert, could fly to Germany to visit their son, Sadowski was disappointed last week when the Army told her they wouldn't be able to make the journey after all.
"The doctors over there make the decision if families get to come," Sadowski said she was told. "Germany is geared toward the soldier. If they don't have to deal with the family, that is great. They don't want us to go in there and hinder their concentration on him."
But on Friday, Sadowski received word that she and her family would be able to fly for free later that day to the nation's capital to see their loved one.
While she called a special hotline number the Army provided several times a day when Crawford was in Germany, Sadowski was never able to speak with her son.
"I'm waiting for that voice," she said.
When they reconnect, Sadowski said, she already knows how the first conversation is going to go.
"If I can keep it together," she said, partially laughing and partially choking back tears, "I'll tell him that he scared the s-- out of me. I love him. We are here to support him no matter what he needs, come hell or high water."
Crawford is on his second tour, having first served in the Marines before renewing his support for the military and switching to the Army.
His latest assignment was similar to the 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down."
"He flies in on a helicopter and slides down on a rope with an assault weapon," Sadowski said. "He'd often go out with the Iraqi military ... to find IEDs and go after insurgents."
With three years left on his contract, it's unknown right now if Crawford will return to active duty or if his wounds will end his career.
"Once he makes the recovery, the military can say, 'We will bring him back or not,'" Sadowski said. "But I do know him and his buns are going to want to go back there."