[Vision2020] Too Hurt to Fly Home, Soldier Returns by RV

[Tom Hansen]

Of special interest to our V2020 subscriber up north.

>From today's (October 12, 2007) Roundup Edition of the Army Times -

--------------------------------------------------------

Too hurt to fly home, soldier returns by RV

By James Halpin - The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Justin Tauriainen awoke in a hospital bed, unaware that
a bomb had exploded lethally close to him.

The explosion killed three others in his vehicle, paralyzed another. Justin
was lucky.

The violent explosion had rocked his head, swelling his brain. He fractured
his leg. His fingers were broken and he lost leg and arm tissue and muscle.
One of his vertebra was shattered.

Now, more than 4½ months after the horrific attack, Justin is finally back
to his post — and hometown — after migrating north along the Alaska Highway
in a motor home.

The trip took about two weeks, but it was necessary, grandfather Jerry
Cozzen said. Justin couldn’t fly. His injuries are still too severe.

Slightly more than a year after departing the town he grew up in, Justin
reached the home he almost never saw again late Wednesday afternoon.

About 15 friends and family members waited for his arrival at the Muldoon
overpass on the Glenn Highway, waving an American flag and a banner that
read, “Welcome Home T-Bone.”

“We’ve been waiting for this day for months, said Susan Tauriainen-Houser,
Justin’s aunt. “It’s a miracle.”

At Justin’s grandparents’ home, nearly 50 people mingled in the chilly fall
air, waiting for their chance to say tearful hellos to Justin.

“Some more will be here when they get off work,” grandmother Marjorie Cozzen
said.

There it was standing-room only among the clusters of red, white and blue
welcome balloons and a few American flags. Some soldiers were in neatly
pressed fatigues. Others, also wounded in action, were in street clothes.

“We’re just thankful he’s home, even though he does miss his buddies,”
mother Jeri said.

Justin, 23, grew up in Anchorage. He went to North Anchorage Christian
Academy, a small private school, finished high school at Job Corps and
started work in construction.

But he always wanted to do something more. He had dreamed about becoming a
police officer, and he talked for years about joining the Army.

There are a lot of soldiers in the family, his grandfather said.

“But he decided that on his own, and we all supported him in it. Still do,”
he said.

He was assigned to his hometown base, and left Anchorage with Fort
Richardson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division last
October.

His life changed forever May 21.

After the word of Justin’s wounds first arrived, the Tauriainens waited for
updates from the military’s casualty information center on the East Coast.
They came in brief, alarming dispatches.

The Army first flew Justin to Germany, then to Brooke Army Medical Center in
San Antonio. The Tauriainens got on a plane.

Justin’s mother and his father, Dave Tauriainen, arrived in Texas at their
son’s side. There, they found a ventilator breathing for his unconscious
body. The bomb had ripped his muscles and flesh. He needed tourniquets on
every limb.

“They weren’t sure if he was going to make it, but he did,” Dave said. “He
got motivated and has been motivated the whole way through.”

Justin made it through what seemed a never-ending series of difficulties and
survived.

“He wasn’t supposed to have made it, but he’s got a lot of support,” his
grandfather said.

The family’s first concern was that he might have brain damage, but the
tests were normal. After he wiggled his toes, they knew they didn’t have to
worry about paralysis.

“His main doctor flat-out told us they weren’t sure he would recover,”
Justin’s father said. “It’s a relief watching him progress by leaps and
bounds.”

Dave Tauriainen was in San Antonio for about three months but had to come
back for work. Jeri stayed the whole time, at the cost of missing her
grandchild’s birth.

Missing work for all that time costs money, and their church helped them get
through it. It has also helped them emotionally.

A lot of prayers have been said, and they seem to have been answered, Jeri
said.

Justin will still have to cope with surviving when his friends didn’t. He
misses them, he said, and he misses being with his unit. He wants to stay in
the Army, at least until his enlistment is up.

That might not be an option.

Multiple surgeries, a few titanium rods in his back, and a lot of physical
therapy later, Justin can now, with some difficulty, get around on his own.
He still needs more surgery and more therapy, but that doesn’t guarantee
he’ll be completely healed.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Justin said. “I don’t know what I’m
capable of.”

He’s getting better, and it shows. He might never be the same as he once
was.

But he’s back.

--------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.