Book Review: Blood Brothers - Among the Soldiers of Ward 57 by Michael Weisskopf - Page 2

Damon was a National Guard helicopter mechanic and had played lead guitar in a local rock band. He lost both hands when the rim exploded on a tire he was inflating on a Black Hawk helicopter. Weighing as heavily on him was the fact that while he survived the explosion, it killed another mechanic standing nearby.

Isaacs, a car buff, lost both his legs below the knee when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee in Mosul hours before Weisskopf's injury. He barely survived long enough to make it to the combat hospital. When Isaacs rises from his wheelchair and stands, albeit wobbly, before the congregation of his hometown fundamentalist church some 18 months later, he is wearing a black bracelet. Inscribed on it is the name of his squad leader, killed in the explosion that took Isaacs' legs

Rodriguez had dreamed of being a combat medic since he was young. He not only became an Army medic in 1990, he headed his own platoon of medics in the 101st Airborne Division. Like the others, an IED took out the Humvee he was in, blowing off his right leg at the knee and taking two fingers from his left hand. Because the injury meant Rodriguez could no longer be a combat medic, it "severed more than a limb. It dismantled Rod's identity."

In addition to telling their stories and his, Weisskopf also gives the reader insight into the care and concern that comes from those who care for the injured. As Weisskopf is being taken by helicopter from the aid station to the nearest combat hospital, he was shivering uncontrollably. A medic put his jacket on Weisskopf. When that didn't stop the shaking, the medic "lay on top of and warmed me with his body heat."

When Isaacs came out of his initial surgery in the combat hospital, he had lost more than half his blood volume. An announcement went out over the public address system seeking A-positive blood. Within two minutes, nearly 50 hospital staffers were lined up at the trauma tent offering their blood. The medical unit's chief nurse, a lieutenant colonel, pulled rank. She went to the front of the line.

Yet Weisskopf talks about more than the emotional and physical toll of treating amputees and learning to live as one. He struggles with other issues beyond simply his injury. Often pressing in on him is the question of whether he knew the object was a grenade when he picked it up. He is haunted through most of the book wondering if he performed the heroic act attributed to him or simply a stupid one.

Article Author: Tim Gebhart

Tim Gebhart lives in Sioux Falls, SD, where he practices law in order to provide shelter for his family, his dogs, and his books. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and his blog de guerre is A Progressive on the Prairie.

Visit Tim Gebhart's author page — Tim Gebhart's Blog