Recovering soldier longs for Iraq
BOISE – Four roadside bombs blew up under vehicles carrying Staff Sgt. Ian Freeman and several more detonated within 20 meters, leaving him with six concussions and forcing him out of the war in Iraq and back to the United States.
But the Idaho soldier said he wants to get back to Iraq and his job of clearing roadside bombs despite the migraines and short-term memory loss he now suffers.
“Most of my guys are still there, so not being there, you feel like you’re letting your people down,” Freeman, 34, told the Idaho Statesman.
Freeman is a member of the 321st Engineer Battalion, based in Boise, that since October has been in Iraq searching for and removing improvised explosive devices, the leading killer of U.S. troops.
About 200 Idaho soldiers are in the Anbar Province looking for IEDs. Six soldiers from the 321st Engineer Battalion have been killed, three of them from Idaho in a blast on Feb. 8.
The “IED hunters” travel in a heavily armored RG-31, a vehicle made in South Africa with a V-shaped hull designed to deflect blasts and protect the soldiers inside.
“When you start to get tired, you start to think of how much you want to live through the experience, and that keeps you up,” Freeman said.
The armored vehicle helped Freeman survive the roadside bombs, though one of them lifted the several-ton vehicle 20 feet in the air. But the cumulative effect of the blasts left Freeman with post concussion syndrome, and in March he was flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for treatment. He returned to Boise on Tuesday.
“Dealing with the bombs and the bullets and the constant threat in my opinion was easier for me than being away from my family,” he said.
Freeman starts therapy next week. He said his goal is to recover from his injuries and be able to return to combat.
His wife, Alishia Freeman, said she’s happy her husband is home even though his fellow soldiers are still in Iraq.
“We won’t be complete until all of the 321st are home with their families,” she said.