A DIFFERENT HOMECOMING

[sunny]

God bless you, Matthew.

nola.com


A DIFFERENT HOMECOMING
After surviving a rebel attack in Afghanistan, a local soldier returns to Abita Springs for R&R -- rigorous rehab
Sunday, July 17, 2005
By Richard Boyd
St. Tammany bureau

Coming under enemy fire in the rugged terrain of southern Afghanistan, Pfc. Matthew King was a long way from home, but the instincts honed by his upbringing in the piney woods of Abita Springs were close at hand.

The fierce firefight that erupted May 3 between American troops and Taliban-led insurgents would become the deadliest battle in the hostile region along the Pakistani border in more than half a year, and the St. Tammany Parish native was smack in the middle of it.

As the soldiers of Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), made their way through the heavily wooded Arghandab Valley in the Deh Chopan district, about 175 miles northeast of Kandahar, the rebels they were seeking unleashed a barrage of firepower from camouflaged positions within the valley's underbrush, and the battle was on.

"I grew up around tall trees, and I guess it was kind of instinctive when the enemy fire started to seek refuge behind a tree," King said afterward. "But they were firing from all directions, and one of them got me."

It was a rocket-propelled grenade that tore into the paratrooper's left leg at midthigh. The grenade did not explode, but its sheer force wrecked much of his upper leg.

"If the grenade had detonated, I would not be here. So, to that extent, I was lucky," King said. "I just felt the impact, it flipped me over, and I felt terrible pain lying beneath that tree."

The battle raged for 2 ½ hours. When it was over, 20 insurgents had been killed. One Afghan National Police officer, fighting with U.S. and other coalition forces, was killed and five were wounded. No U.S. soldiers died; King and five others were wounded.

King had deployed to Afghanistan just 30 days earlier, but the severe wound cut short his tour of duty there; he was flown to an Army hospital in Germany for emergency treatment. Seven surgeries later, he obtained a recuperation leave from his treatment and rehabilitation assignment in San Antonio and was allowed to return home for a visit in late June and early July.

He looked in on an old haunt or two, got together with a few high school buddies and was honored by the Abita Springs Board of Aldermen. He recognized, though, that it wasn't the homecoming he had envisioned.

Things are different now.

"They all have their own lives, their own schedules, and I haven't had much time for lots of visiting and hanging out anyway," he said.

Battle-scarred soldier

When he joined the Army in February 2004, King was an 18-year-old recruit, in superb physical condition and eager for what lay ahead. The young man who returned to Abita Springs last month was a battle-scarred soldier, with expectations sobered by the realities of war.

Much of his 30-day furlough was spent at Zelden Physical Therapy south of Covington. He had arrived home after 25 days in an Army hospital in Texas with orders to follow a strict therapy regimen, and he did not miss a session.

"It has not been a vacation, that's for sure," King said one day at the home of his mother, Lisa King, on Silver Springs Drive. Some days had been relatively pain-free, but not that one.

Throwing his left leg onto the kitchen counter, King slowly peeled back the elastic bands and lifted the gauze wrappings, slightly spotted with blood, to reveal an inflammation signaling the return of an infection. The spot of impact where the cone of the 18-inch-long grenade had plowed deep into his leg was a raw, discolored mass of exposed skin, scar tissue and a deep hole about 2 inches across.

Then, he clicked through a series of images on his laptop computer, pausing at one of them.

"That was the rebel who fired it. We brought him down," he said, looking at the photograph of a body slumped beside the tree he had hidden behind, about 40 feet from the tree King used for cover during the battle.

While home, King occasionally talked by satellite phone with his Chosen Company comrades.

"I've been talking mostly about my leg and my therapy," he said. "It's been kind of calm over there now, according to them."

"Those are some great guys in Chosen Company."

Returning to his laptop, he paused again, this time at an image of several rebels' bodies lined up beneath trees. Another photo showed stacks of hand-held missile launchers and other enemy firearms taken by U.S. forces.

'I will never jump again'

After training at Fort Benning, Ga., King had been shipped to Italy, where he made 23 parachute jumps before being deployed to Afghanistan.

"When we got sent to this battle zone, the terrain was too rough to jump into it," he said. "We had to be transported over land. . . . I loved jumping, and I will never jump again. I have had to face that fact, but I can't change it."

Two days before his return to Texas, battling the new infection, he got in the last two therapy sessions as ordered. He drove to the clinic in a small, white family car bearing bumper stickers saying "I Support Our Overseas Troops," "I Support Our Troops," and "Support Your Local JP's and Constables," a reference to his mother's position as an elected justice of the peace.

Therapy sessions averaged more than three hours each, several days a week. They began with King flat on an exercise bed, his leg covered with hot pads to loosen the damaged muscles so he could move from machine to machine for repetitive exercises to rebuild strength of the damaged hamstring and quadriceps.

"I just know I'm facing more of the same daily therapy back in Texas, and I don't know for how long," he said. He hopes the Army will agree to let him return home in a month, working as an assistant local Army recruiter and continuing his therapy at the local clinic for the rest of his tour of duty -- less than 10 months.

Mission 'is important'

King is a soldier, and he thinks he was a good one. He is not political and not a self-proclaimed barnstormer for the U.S. position, but he supports our military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"There is a lot of unrest, and the citizens of both countries need our help to try to restore some peace and quiet for them so they can eventually live more like we live," he said. "I think our mission in both countries is important."

So does Lisa King, who, even before her son was hurt, had begun a grass-roots drive to collect and send items to members of Chosen Company. In a bit of bittersweet irony, King spent some of his leave helping his mom collect and package items for his unit.

"I knew what she was doing, but I got hurt and got sent stateside to recover before any of the boxes arrived," King said. "I know the guys in that combat unit of mine, and I know they appreciate this."

Presented the Purple Heart while in an Army hospital in Germany, King will never be the same as when he graduated in June 2003 from St. Paul's School in Covington, where he was in the Junior ROTC program.

"The therapists say, at best, I will regain between 60 to 70 percent mobility," he said. "I don't expect to rejoin my unit before my tour is up, and I know I won't see combat again. I don't know what the future holds."

In the meantime, King tries try to stay upbeat and work through the pain that comes and goes.

"My focus now is on the physical therapy and the long rehabilitation that lies ahead," he said.

On July 29, undergoing daily therapy, Pfc. Matthew King will turn 20 at the Army hospital in Texas.
. . . . . . .

Donations requested for shipment to Chosen Company include sweet snacks, compact discs, video games, packaged drink mixes and Boudreaux's Butt Paste to treat the constant irritation of Afghanistan desert sand that seeps through military clothing. Items can be dropped off at Abita Springs Town Hall. For information, call Lisa King at (985) 892-6450.

Richard Boyd can be reached at rboyd@timespicayune.com or (985) 898-4816.