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The Story of a Wounded Soldier
"I fought in a foreign war, was injured in battle and survived and made it back home."
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to this Commentary!
By Chris Kotch
In September 2003, 21 year old Corporal Chris Kotch was hit by an improvised explosive device while on routine patrol near Al'Fallujah in Iraq. His left vocal chord is now paralyzed, due to a procedure following his injury, and you’ll hear the effects of that damage in his voice. Youth Radio brings us Corporal Kotch's reflections on return from the war, starting with the moment the bomb detonated.
I couldn’t hear the boom. I saw shower sparks like someone lit off a big fire works. Just yellow sparks shooting up about ten feet in the air. Then I fell into the truck from the blast. My driver told me to get back to the gun because he didn’t know I had an injury. I climbed up, fired a couple of rounds, then lost strength and collapsed back into the truck, bleeding from neck and left arm wasn’t functioning.
Granted, it’s one of those million dollar wounds, you get to go home. But I miss being over there, I miss what I did, and until they get back I don’t think I’m really gonna be at one with my old self.
I can sleep well at night, but I’ll wake up pretty abruptly. A couple of instances, my mom walking in my room for something, and she said that I’ve woken up, and followed her around the room, watching her, watching what she did, and she says, only a mom could say, it’s not like having her son watch her, it’s like someone really on edge, watching what they’re doing, sort of paranoid I guess, I don’t know, if that’s the term to use.
My friends, they are behind me 100%. After they heard what I’d been through, what I’d done, it’s a pretty big thing for someone my age to go off and say I fought in a foreign war, was injured in battle and survived and made it back home.
The siblings on the other hand, I have two special needs, one’s a brother, one’s a sister, and they don’t quite grasp what I’ve been through. I’ve snapped at them a couple times since I’ve been home, and they take great offense. My mom would talk to me afterwards, because they’d run to mom, she wouldn’t yell at me or anything because she knows I’m going through a big phase, and she just reminds me they’re not gonna ever understand why I act the way I do now.
- Corporal Kotch is recovering from his injuries in his hometown, Brunswick, Maine, and plans to continue in the military reserves. His commentary is part of a special Youth Radio series "Reflections on Return".
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