By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
MOORESVILLE ó Retired National Guard 1st Sgt. Robert Stirewalt watched with pride Saturday as Staff Sgt. Dale Beatty stepped onto a wooden platform in front of JR Motorsports.
Beatty, 30, of Statesville, who is also retired, was the keynote speaker at a “Welcome Home” celebration for veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He stood confidently on two above-the-knee prostheses as he recalled the day the Humvee he was riding in as part of a patrol team in Operation Iraqi Freedom II ran over a land mine and exploded.
It happened on Nov. 15, 2004. It’s a day Stirewalt, who lives in China Grove, will never forget: It was the first time one of the soldiers under his command of Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 113th Field Artillery, was seriously injured.
The explosion happened at around 9:30 in the morning, said Stirewalt, who was at FOB (Forward Operation Base) Summerall.
Emergency personnel worked to stabilize Beatty on the scene before he was transported via helicopter to a hospital in COB (Contingency Operating Base) Speicher. When Stirewalt heard what had happened, he and his colonel and sergeant major arranged for a convoy to go to the hospital.
When he went inside, Stirewalt said he started looking around for Beatty. When he asked a doctor where he could find him, the doctor said, “Right here he is,” and pointed to an unconscious man lying in the bed closest to Stirewalt.
Beatty, who was hooked to a ventilator, was unrecognizable with his face and eyes covered with bandages. The doctor said the explosion had blown sand and glass into his eyes.
The memory is still painful for Stirewalt. He was 48 at the time, and Beatty was only 26.
“So that was kind of like my own kid,” he said. “All of the guys were kind of like my kids.”
At one point during Stirewalt’s visit, staff moved Beatty from one bed to another. That’s when Stirewalt noticed that one of his legs was missing.
“The doctor told me he would probably beg them to take the other one off because it was in such bad shape,” he said.
Stirewalt said he was upset about Beatty’s legs, but it was his bandaged eyes that worried him the most.
Beatty had two small sons, and Stirewalt knew that he still had hands with which to pick them up and hold them. “All I was hoping was that he could see them,” he said. “As for the walking part, they could put more legs on, but when you lose your eyes …”
A couple of days later, Beatty called Stirewalt on a field phone and told him the gauze was off his eyes and they were fine. Stirewalt was relieved.
He said he knew Beatty would recover from losing his legs. “He’s a tough guy,” he said, “but I just didn’t know about the eyes.”
When Stirewalt came back from Iraq in January 2005, he went to see Beatty at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he was eventually transferred.
“He had his prostheses on,” Stirewalt said. “As soon as his legs had healed enough and they could fit him, he was trying to walk.”
The last time Stirewalt saw Beatty was at the deactivation of Charlie Battery, held in September 2005 in Lincolnton. He said he didn’t know Beatty ó who was awarded a Purple Heart ó was speaking at the Welcome Home celebration cosponsored by the Hefner VA Medical Center and JR Motorsports when he and his wife, Becky, decided to go so he could get a flu shot.
Stirewalt became emotional when he reunited with Beatty at the celebration. The young soldier reached to comfort him, saying “It wasn’t your fault.”
For Stirewalt, watching Beatty step onto the platform and share his story was a poignant moment. “He did a good job,” he said. “He’s an inspiration to anybody that got hurt over there.
“He doesn’t feel sorry for himself. He knows he’s got a family to raise, and he’s going on with his obligations.”
Beatty’s sons, Dustin and Lucas, are 6 and 4 now. Their father says it was easier for them to accept him losing his legs because they and their mother, Belinda, were with him during his stay at Walter Reed.
“They saw lot of people with disabilities worse than me,” he said. “They don’t judge people for being different.”
Dustin would go up to other veterans at the medical center and ask them what happened, Beatty said. “He’d say, ‘My dad hit a land mine. What happened to you?’ ”
Beatty said one of Dustin’s classmates has cerebral palsy, wears braces on his legs and has a cochlear implant in his ear. “Dustin doesn’t treat him any differently,” he said, “and I’m proud of him for that.”
Several hundred veterans and their families, local dignitaries, representatives of agencies serving veterans and employees of the Hefner VA medical center and VA clinics in Charlotte, Hickory and Winston-Salem attended the celebration, which lasted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Billy Icard of Hickory was accompanied by his wife, Cathy, and their children, 13-year-old Desirae and 10-year-old Levi.
Icard served in Iraq from January to May 7, 2004, when he was injured by an IED (improvised explosive device), also known as a roadside bomb. He suffered a head trauma causing damage to the front lobe of his brain and back of his head, along with muscle and nerve damage from shrapnel in his lower back and right hip and leg.
“I live with a lot of pain and headaches,” Icard said. “I can only walk for a short time.”
Icard, who also suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, said he’s still having to deal with painful memories from the war. He gets nervous in crowds and said he had to take medicine to be able to go to Saturday’s celebration.
Among those participating in the “Welcome Home” celebration were Carolyn Adams, director of the Hefner VA Medical Center; Debra Volkmer, manager of the medical center’s Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom program; Chaplain Paul Schellbach, readjustment counselor at the Vet Center in Greensboro; the Oak Ridge Military Academy Honor Guard; Michael Smyre, veteran and Purple Heart recipient; Pamela Bowman, spouse of a retired veteran; and Camille Thompson of JR Motorsports.