MedicCook
11-18-2006, 03:04 PM
Soldier wounded on last day in Iraq
Glens Falls man shot in leg just before planned departure
A 20-year-old Army soldier from Glens Falls was shot in the thigh Thursday as he waited in a tent to leave Iraq, family members said Friday.
Army Spc. Taylor Stewart, son of Anni Stewart of Glens Falls and William Stewart of Hudson Falls, was wounded after he left Baghdad with members of his Army unit, the 72nd Signal Battalion, which specializes in communications.
The bullet missed the bone in Stewart'€™s right thigh and he was able to leave the hospital after a short stay, he told his parents.
His parents, who received a total of four phone calls from their son Thursday and Friday, said he initially told them that the bullet came from the rifle of a rooftop sniper.
"It happened very quickly. He saw a man on a roof and wondered why a man was up there, and '€˜boom'€™ he was shot," Anni said, recalling the first phone call.
In later calls, the soldier suggested the bullet may have been randomly fired into the air from outside the base.
The bullet hit Stewart after penetrating the wall of a large tented area occupied by Stewart and other soldiers.
He didn'€™t notice he was shot until another soldier told him he was bleeding, Anni said.
Stewart, who attended Glens Falls High School, has been in the Army for two and a half years, spending the last year in Iraq.
He called his mother Thursday morning from a military hospital while she was at work at the Washington County Department of Public Health, where she is a maternal child nurse.
On Thursday, the soldier was spending his last day in Iraq after he moved from Baghdad to a base outside of the troubled city.
From that base, Stewart was set to leave Friday for Kuwait and then fly to Germany. On Dec. 2, he is scheduled to return to his home on West Notre Dame Street in Glens Falls for a month'€™s leave.
The wounded soldier walked out of the hospital on his own, taking with him the bullet that passed through his leg as a "souvenir" of his time in Iraq, his mother said.
"He signed himself out because he wanted to leave with his company," she said.
This was not the first time a bullet has entered a military compound where Stewart was staying.
While stationed at one of Saddam Hussein'€™s former palaces in Baghdad, a bullet, likely from a gun fired into the air near the compound, came through the roof of the trailer Stewart was in, burying itself in the floor near him.
On Thursday, though, an incoming bullet found flesh.
"I thank goodness he wasn'€™t hurt more," Bill Stewart said.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2006/11/18/news/doc455e8c94a652e784495180.txt
Glens Falls man shot in leg just before planned departure
A 20-year-old Army soldier from Glens Falls was shot in the thigh Thursday as he waited in a tent to leave Iraq, family members said Friday.
Army Spc. Taylor Stewart, son of Anni Stewart of Glens Falls and William Stewart of Hudson Falls, was wounded after he left Baghdad with members of his Army unit, the 72nd Signal Battalion, which specializes in communications.
The bullet missed the bone in Stewart'€™s right thigh and he was able to leave the hospital after a short stay, he told his parents.
His parents, who received a total of four phone calls from their son Thursday and Friday, said he initially told them that the bullet came from the rifle of a rooftop sniper.
"It happened very quickly. He saw a man on a roof and wondered why a man was up there, and '€˜boom'€™ he was shot," Anni said, recalling the first phone call.
In later calls, the soldier suggested the bullet may have been randomly fired into the air from outside the base.
The bullet hit Stewart after penetrating the wall of a large tented area occupied by Stewart and other soldiers.
He didn'€™t notice he was shot until another soldier told him he was bleeding, Anni said.
Stewart, who attended Glens Falls High School, has been in the Army for two and a half years, spending the last year in Iraq.
He called his mother Thursday morning from a military hospital while she was at work at the Washington County Department of Public Health, where she is a maternal child nurse.
On Thursday, the soldier was spending his last day in Iraq after he moved from Baghdad to a base outside of the troubled city.
From that base, Stewart was set to leave Friday for Kuwait and then fly to Germany. On Dec. 2, he is scheduled to return to his home on West Notre Dame Street in Glens Falls for a month'€™s leave.
The wounded soldier walked out of the hospital on his own, taking with him the bullet that passed through his leg as a "souvenir" of his time in Iraq, his mother said.
"He signed himself out because he wanted to leave with his company," she said.
This was not the first time a bullet has entered a military compound where Stewart was staying.
While stationed at one of Saddam Hussein'€™s former palaces in Baghdad, a bullet, likely from a gun fired into the air near the compound, came through the roof of the trailer Stewart was in, burying itself in the floor near him.
On Thursday, though, an incoming bullet found flesh.
"I thank goodness he wasn'€™t hurt more," Bill Stewart said.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2006/11/18/news/doc455e8c94a652e784495180.txt