Troops Face Challenges of Recovery

[livvy]

Troops Face Challenges of Recovery

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 7:26:00 EST

All three were shattered, in different ways. Eddie Silva lost his sight. For June Moss, the wounds were emotional. Shrapnel from an explosion tore into Angel Gomez’s head.

They are three among of tens of thousands of U.S. service members to return from the war in Iraq needing intensive, expert help to get their lives back on track. Each has made progress — after arduous regimens of therapy or counseling at the VA health center in Palo Alto, Calif. — and each knows more challenges lie ahead.

Silva, a Marine sergeant, was blinded by a roadside bomb in August 2007 while on a foot patrol outside Fallujah during his fifth overseas tour. After a year of physical and occupational therapy, he savors his return toward self-sufficiency.

“The toughest part is what you’ve got to learn all over again,” he said. “The reward is when you master it, and you get that independence that you’re dying to get back — cooking, doing your laundry, using a computer, how to use a phone.”

A father of three, Silva hopes to get a college degree and then do counseling for the VA, offering the kind of help that he received from a parade of VA employees.

more...

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/marine_disvets_112808/%2e

[midnight]

1. I find it incouraging that Siva has not given up. I would like to

see a ground swell of benefits, due to these vets, to help make this transition less painful....