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1st Sg. Alec Giess
On December 16, 2003, 1st Sg. Alec Giess, an army combat engineer attached to the 101st Airborne Division, was riding in a convoy on a dangerous stretch of Highway One, just south of Mosul, in Iraq. Suddenly the driver of Giess's truck swerved to avoid what he thought was an improvised explosive device. But in attempting to avoid the danger, the truck ran over an oil slick on the road, spun out of control, and flipped over. Giess was thrown from the vehicle — and the 5-ton truck landed on top of him.
The driver of the vehicle, Spc. Nathan Nakis, died as a result of the accident. Sg. Giess claims he would have met the same fate if he hadn't been wearing his Kevlar body armor, which he had received only two days before the accident. The armor's metal shell prevented his chest from being completely crushed — he broke his collarbone and one vertebra. But Giess did suffer a less obvious injury. Initially undetected by army doctors, Giess's brain had suffered serious trauma, leaving him with memory loss, difficulty concentrating and language problems.
Yet despite his sacrifice, Sg. Giess isn't counted in the Pentagon's tally of casualties for Operation Iraqi Freedom. They consider his injuries to be non-combat related.
A native of Oregon, Giess ran his own construction business before his tour of duty in Iraq, building houses as an independent contractor. He applied his skills to the rebuilding effort in Iraq, overseeing 36 soldiers in his platoon and recruiting and training over 75 Iraqis to build houses in Mosul. But after sustaining the injury to the frontal lobe of his brain, he says he can no longer deal with the day-to-day operations of running a business. He doubts that he'll ever be able to pursue his livelihood in construction again.
Giess, who is 44, will get the same access to benefits as a soldier who was wounded in action — all veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom have a two-year period to sign up for free health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, no matter what the cause of their injury. But his wife, Shana, says he doesn't know what he'll receive in disability compensation from the VA, and it could be difficult to put his children (Simone, 14, and Spencer, 12) through college. Shana already works a full-time job.
Simone recently asked her mom when life was going to get back to normal. "This could be the new normal," Shana replied.
A new normal for the Giess family - but not a casualty of war, according to the Pentagon.
"Brain Trauma Takes Toll on Soldiers," CONTRA COSTA TIMES, May 26, 2004
Army Reserve Lt. Jullian Goodrum
UPI reporter Mark Benjamin has been following the story of Lt. Goodrum. You can read about his situation at the following links.
"GI denied health care after speaking out," UPI, March 1, 2004
"Army kept whistle-blower in locked ward," UPI, May 25, 2004
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