5 DOCTORS OF INTEREST
The
SOLDIER
BY GLORIA TAYLOR WEINBERG
Lt. Col. William Stanton is home now, safe from the perils
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of war in Iraq. The Fort Pierce orthopaedic surgeon
can sit on his front porch and look across the tranquil
waters of the Indian River Lagoon.
It’s a far cry from the 134-degree days of summer he spent
in the 399th Combat Support Hospital outside of Tikrit, the
birthplace of Saddam Hussein. Here, a cool river breeze is
welcoming, like the yellow ribbons and loving embrace of
family and friends. Life is back to normal with his wife,
Laura, and their four children – a world away from his time
in Iraq.
Stanton spent endless hours trying to save the lives and
mend the limbs of those torn apart by bombs and shrapnel
and bullets. “I am daily amazed at the commitment and
courage I see in these injured soldiers,” Stanton wrote in an
e-mail posted June 4 on the family’s Website.
And later, “These kids are very brave. They go out again
and again, knowing the imminent danger. When injured,
their first concern is when they can get back at it. I have
come to appreciate the ‘war fighters’ as I work in a safe environment
and do not ever worry about my safety.”
On the Fourth of July, while the folks at home prepared for
an evening of celebration, Stanton watched a young engineer
lieutenant die on the operating table from wounds suffered
in a roadside bomb attack – the most common type of injury
treated at the Camp Speicher hospital.
“To say the least, it was very sad and heartbreaking to see
his fellow soldiers weeping, and then to hear his wife is an
officer here on post also,” Stanton wrote on the Web site. “It
all seems so senseless sometimes. No one should be dying,
but cliché aside, the young officer died serving his country
and trying to help people here in this war-torn country. That
has to mean something in the end.”
A colleague shot this photo of Dr. William Stanton outside
a medic tent while stationed near Tikrit.
It is a thought he clings to now.
Stanton, a 15-year veteran of active and reserve duty, also
served a six-month peacekeeping tour in Kosovo, shortly
after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers in 2001.
That was a time, Laura Stanton said, “when all Americans
felt vulnerable.”
While she had mixed feelings about having him in harm’s
way again, it was “not unexpected,” she said, when he
signed on for Reserve duty in 2006, for the express purpose
of going to Iraq.“He’s always supported the military,” she
said. “I’m proud of him for wanting to go.”
And Stanton was proud to serve. “What is difficult to
explain is the genuine feeling of camaraderie among the military
men and women who staff this combat hospital,” he
said just before his 90-day tour was completed. “It is truly a
joy, despite the heat, the less-than-stellar living conditions
and the terrible injuries/loss of life, to serve here in Iraq.”
Still, he is glad to be home.
“These experiences make me appreciate all the things normally
taken for granted: safety, freedom from the threat of
persecution, abundance of food/water, etc., become more
dear to me. Being away from my wife and kids also makes
the heart grow fonder.”