http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/photo/nation/2003-07-19_JohnFernandez/index_frames_archive.htm The Soldiers of Ward 57 The War After the War
Soldiers' Battle Shifts From Desert Sands to Hospital Linoleum
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I18056-2003Jul20LPfc. Garth Stewart undergoes therapy daily to try to regain strength. He lost 20 pounds and part of his left leg. (Michael Lutzky/The Washington Post)
_____In This Series_____
• Part II: Moving Forward, One Step at a Time (The Washington Post, Jul 20, 2003)
___ Video ___
Purple Hearts
Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Dill, 39, and Lance Cpl. John A. Keeney, 20, were awarded the Purple Heart for their sacrifices in Iraq. Both were recuperating at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
By Anne Hull and Tamara Jones
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 20, 2003; Page A01
First of two articles
The taxicab pulls up to the curb of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Pfc. Garth Stewart slides into the back seat. A nurse stows his duffel bag in the trunk, offering her last advice. "Move your leg around on the flight," she says.
The American flag hangs slack on the flagpole. Garth lays his crutches across his lap. The lanky 20-year-old soldier from Minnesota rubs the place where his leg was amputated. The throbbing alternates with jolts that feel like electrical shocks. Two Percocets are in his pocket for the plane ride home.
As the cab cuts through Rock Creek Park, Garth rolls down the window to smell the forest. After weeks of hospital food and disinfectant, he breathes deeply. He rips the plastic hospital ID bracelet from his wrist and crumples it in a ball.
The bed that Garth left behind on Ward 57 will be filled by day's end. Even though major combat operations in Iraq are over, the wounded keep arriving. Twice a week, transport planes land at Andrews Air Force Base, bringing fresh casualties. Accidents, ambushes, pockets of resistance. Nearly 650 soldiers have passed through Walter Reed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than half of them since the conflict was officially declared over.
On TV, the war was a rout, with infrared tanks rolling toward Baghdad on a desert soundstage. But the permanent realities unfold more quietly on Georgia Avenue NW, behind the black iron gates of the nation's largest military hospital.
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