Friend

So, as you know, many of my friends from college were in ROTC and have such been deployed to the Middle East. One of my friends Luke was in Afghanistan. He is the friend whose wedding I went to in Montana and whose wife Karl and I visited on our road trip. Anyway, he hit an IED. Two guys in his vehicle died, and he was knocked out. It turns out he had the following injuries: slight shrapnel wounds to the legs but no broken legs, an open abdominal wound from the surgery (the over-pressure from the IED ruptured something internally, causing internal bleeding, hence the abdominal surgery), broken right hand, broken ulna, fractured pelvis, and then broken vertebrae, to include: L1-7, L9, T1-3. He was flown to Germany after a bit, which was good because Karl got to visit him every day he was there. Karl also gave us updates which was nice. He was able to move both legs as well as his arms. Apparently the IED was somewhere around 600 pounds. On Sunday he was flown to Walter Reed, where they have been working on him because it turns out the concussion of the IED killed his gall bladder, so he has been having some internal problems. The good news is that his wife is with him now. That and Obama came and visited him...but he wasn't feeling well so it was a short visit.

The way Karl reported the incident to us is as follows: "As for what Luke told me, please forgive me if I mix up some of the details or the story but he was coming and going as he told me. On 15 Oct, his company lost 4 guys to a 1,500lb HME IED. He said it vaporized the truck. He also said that another element, I think from his company, got into a 12hr firefight with the Taliban. As for Luke's day. On 23 Oct, he was in the middle of a six-day patrol. His platoon would go from FOB to FOB, clearing 60km of road at a time and then either Rest Over Night at a Forward Observation Base or set up a Patrol Base. Well, one of his Husky's had been hit by an IED by a town. As his platoon was maneuvering through a wadi, Luke's truck got hit. It killed his driver and gunner. He remembers laying on his side and not being able to move. Then he remembers being in a lot of pain and then being put on a MEDEVAC bird. Thats really about it until this afternoon."

So if you could keep him in your thoughts, it would be appreciated. As for me, I'm doing well. I was a little shocked and depressed at all this news at first, because we only had little bits of info, and it didn't start out well. But it looks like everything will be fine, relatively speaking. As for Vegas stuff, there isn't much new. We get Wednesday off for the holiday, but I'm getting pretty busy because it is getting to be report card time. I really just wanted to post this about Luke, being we have this holiday coming up. I hope everyone is doing well!