To the Front
Soldiers who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing the unthinkable: Going back into battle

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By Pat Wingert and T. Trent Gegax
NewsweekMarch 14 issue - Army S/Sgt. Daniel Metzdorf figured his career as an infantryman was over when he lost his right leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq in January 2004. But back at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, Metzdorf saw other amputees ambling by on high-tech prosthetic legs and had a crazy idea: he wanted to go back into battle with the 82nd Airborne. It was a long and painful struggle. The 28-year-old had 19 operations and faced hours of grueling rehab, first learning to walk again, and then to run and swim. Confident that he was ready, Metzdorf applied for reinstatement. But instead of a new post, the Army had another offer: a medical discharge. To a fighter like Metzdorf, quitting didn't seem like an option. "I told them, 'I'm not going to get out'," he says. He applied—and was rejected—twice more before he won over one important ally, his unit commander, who weighed in on his behalf. Finally, the Army relented, assigning Metzdorf to a desk job at Fort Bragg, N.C. He's still angling to get back to combat duty in Iraq. "I'm still an asset," Metzdorf says. "I just want to give back as much as I got."

In previous wars, many severely wounded soldiers died on the battlefield. Amputees who made it home were automatically retired. Now advances in medicine mean more amputees are surviving, and today's high-tech replacement limbs let them lead active lives—something soldiers like Metzdorf aim to do in uniform. George W. Bush buoyed their hopes when he visited Walter Reed in late 2003. "Today, if wounded service members want to remain in uniform and can do the job," Bush said, "the military tries to help them stay."

A small core of determined vets is taking the president at his word. So far, fewer than a dozen have been declared "fit for duty," and many more are training for their comebacks. Top Pentagon officials were at first reluctant. But after hearing personal pleas from wounded vets—and seeing the soldiers' astonishing recoveries firsthand—they reconsidered. The first Marine amputee found fit for duty has just returned from seven months in Iraq. "We realize that a soldier's strong mental and emotional outlook can more than compensate for a changed body," says Lt. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel.


Alex Majoli / Magnum for Newsweek
Pfc. George Perez: The paratrooper, 21, has completed his first successful jump with his new prosthetic leg. He's preparing to head to Afghanistan in May
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The same grit that drew many of these vets to the military in the first place helps push them back into combat. Army Pfc. George Perez, 21, who lost a leg to a roadside bomb in Fallujah, wanted to stay in the service as soon as he found out he could walk again. "Ultimately, I want to do what makes me happy. It's also love of country, but I've got goals. I'm hard to keep down," he says. In May, he'll head to Afghanistan. S/Sgt. David Chatham, 34, won a Silver Star for rescuing troops after a rocket-launched grenade attack outside Fallujah in 2003. He applied his own tourniquet to a nearly severed left ankle. As soon as he was conscious, "I knew I wanted to stay in," he says. "I've been in the Army for more than half of my life. It's my family."


Alex Majoli / Magnum for Newsweek
Capt. David Rozelle: As the 32-year-old Texan prepares to leave for Iraq, CPO Christopher Jones conducts a final fitting on his prosthetic leg
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It's not just the grunts who are eager to fight again. This month Army Capt. David Rozelle, 33, who lost part of his right leg to an antitank mine in 2003, will return as commander of the Third Armored Cavalry's regimental headquarters. Hours after surgery, Rozelle's commander stopped by his bedside to promise him another command once he'd healed. "I thought to myself, You can do this, I can go back and serve my country," says Rozelle, who has written about his experience in a new book, "Back in Action."

Some wounded soldiers are willing to do almost anything to get back into uniform. After Senior Airman Anthony Pizzifred, 20, lost his leg just above the ankle in Afghanistan last March, surgeons told him that the best prosthetic leg—one that would allow him to walk, run and wade in the ocean—was designed for those with more severe amputations. Pizzifred wanted maximum mobility as fast as possible. So he told his doctors to take off as much as they needed. They wheeled him back into the operating room and cut off his leg almost to the knee.


Alex Majoli / Magnum for Newsweek
Staff Sgt. Josh Olson: Working out at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's gym. 'For me to walk, I have to use all my abdominal muscles the whole time'
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Rejoining the service isn't necessarily a moneymaking proposition. Pizzifred says the Air Force would pay for a college education and a guaranteed mortgage if he retired, but he passed up the perks for a chance to serve overseas again. "I would have gotten more if I got out than I would by staying in," he says.

For many amputees, returning to combat duty may be an impossible dream. Some have multiple amputations. And those who've lost arms find it very difficult to learn to fire a weapon again. Special Forces Sgt. Andrew McCaffrey, 32, who lost his right arm below the elbow to a grenade in Afghanistan, now hopes to redeploy with the elite Green Berets. He has spent more than a year training and last week was performing field exercises with his unit at Fort Bragg. But base officials said his status was still uncertain. Many amputees can't return to the exact jobs they left. Army S/Sgt. Josh Olson, 25, lost his leg clear up to the hipbone while on foot patrol in Iraq in 2003. Army recruiters asked him to retrain and teach marksmanship instead. Last week Olson was thrilled to learn he'd been declared fit for combat.

Even if they persuade the military to let them go back to work, soldiers have to contend with an even tougher force: their families. Metzdorf is still trying to persuade his. "They think I've lost part of my brain, too," he says. Metzdorf told them not to worry. This time, he joked grimly, he'd be coming back in one piece.

What do you want them to do? The millitary is their life. It is similar to getting injured in a steelmill. You recover and return to the only job you know. Sure its a risk in the steelmill, but its what you do. In a sense it is always easeyier to do something you know rather than start something new. The risk is seen as greater in doing something different. Or perhaps they just like what they do. I could not see myself going back but I am not in their shoes.

You have to understand esprit de corps & loyalty to your brothers.

You have to understand esprit de corps & loyalty to your brothers.

I saw Band of Brothers.  Incredible!  And they were brainwashed to the max.  Basic training really molded their minds.

A big difference in my viewpoint, is that WWII was a war worth fighting for.  Security of the country and of the world.  Iraq is complete BS, and would be worth tunneling to escape.

What do you want them to do? The millitary is their life. It is similar to getting injured in a steelmill. You recover and return to the only job you know. Sure its a risk in the steelmill, but its what you do. In a sense it is always easeyier to do something you know rather than start something new. The risk is seen as greater in doing something different. Or perhaps they just like what they do. I could not see myself going back but I am not in their shoes.

I do get some of that from some of the military folks here.  Behind all the bravado, is all the brain washing, a very myopic viewpoint, and courage that only runs as deep as their next engagement. 

Out of Marine bootcamp I was that way for about a month.  I guess I wasn't a very good marine, that I didn't let the brainwashing set to deeply.

Hmmmm, methinks your vast experience in the Corps gave you a better understanding than I ever got. During  my 20 years served with the Corps while I was in the Navy between 1966 and 1996, including in combat and under fire in a few places, as well as deployments in the Atlantic, the Med, the Pacific, Indian Ocean, to Asia, Europe, Carribean, Africa,  Central and South America methinks I never met a brainwashed Marine, or what I recognized as a brainwashed member of any of our military forces, eh?

I did know a lot of good folks that the Corps had changed from individuals caring and thinking only about themselves to members of a team in boot camp, OCS, and/or other training venues the Marines have (we squids got the same kind of training from the Marines in venues at Camp Gieger and Camp Pendleton prior to assignment to USMC units). They were then able to effectively act in unison as a team and developing a sense of camaraderie with those they served with. Methinks they learned that small cohesive units following orders under fire acting in concert with other units, yet able to adapt to changing conditions under leaders that were right there with them were able to engage and beat much larger opposing forces. I doubt that brainwashed troops would have done as well, although there was always "that one person" for whom it seemed the training hadn't succeeded with, they didn't function well as a member of the team, and that those folks were often responsible for many of the casualties I treated, eh?

When you said "I guess I wasn't a very good marine, that I didn't let the brainwashing set to deeply" methinks you may well be correct! 'Twould seem you never even learned that Marine, when used to describe a member of the United States Marine Corps, is capitalized. 'Tis also very possible you may have fallen into the category of those who couldn't or wouldn't function as a member of a cohesive unit, but methinks that's for you to figure out, not me, eh?

In any case 'twould seem your experiences were much different than my own. Maybe other Marines here might comment and/or give us their own perspective, eh? Never actually having been a Marine 'twould seem I might not fully understand what I saw and experienced.

Marine... There are always exceptional individuals in every population. No difference in the military. However in my experience I saw more drunks then one would think existed in any population. I seen them drunk even on duty. They existed in my time in the Navy. That would be in the time frame of 1965 to 1969. I did not wish to join them and be dead at 45 of what ever drunks die of. I was tired of the life at sea and I saw all of the ports and bars I wished to see.

I never said everyone was a drunk. But there were people who had to have a beer for breakfast or their hands would shake. There were quite a few of them in my Navy experience. But when I worked for the IRS for 27 years I only know 2 individuals like that. Mabey there were more and I did not know it. In the military you live in close quarters so that its hard to hide the fact that that you are a drunk. I am not trying to denigrate military service. I am just relating my experience as I saw it.