KIDS MEET TRUE PATRIOT AMPUTEE SOLDIER TELLS OF IRAQ WAR.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer LAKE LOS ANGELES Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. - Littlerock High School Littlerock High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Littlerock, California. It is the a part of the Antelope Valley High School District (AVHSD). External links
Five months into his deployment, an explosive blew up under the armor-plated Humvee he was driving while his unit was on morning patrol in southeast Baghdad. The blast mangled his right leg below the knee. ``My leg was numb. I thought I got a round,'' said Army Spec. Dassler, 19. ``I tried to slow down. I tried stomping on the brake and nothing happened.'' Dassler, now fitted with a prosthetic pros·thet·ic adj. 1. Serving as or relating to a prosthesis. 2. Of or relating to prosthetics. prosthetic serving as a substitute; pertaining to prostheses or to prosthetics. leg and home on leave, is one of more than 15,000 American military personnel who have been wounded in the Iraq war Iraq War: see under Persian Gulf Wars. Iraq War or Second Persian Gulf War Brief conflict in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops largely from the U.S. and Great Britain; and a subsequent U.S. . More than 2,000 have died. An Army specialist with the 3rd Infantry Division, Dassler enlisted in June 2003, waited to get his braces off and then went off to basic training in February 2004. He was sent overseas in January, first to Kuwait for a month, and then to Iraq. Dassler and his unit worked alongside Iraqi army The Iraqi Army is the army of Iraq, active in various forms since the country was formed in the aftermath of World War I. Today, it is a component of the Iraqi Security Forces tasked with assuming responsibility for all Iraqi land-based military operations following the 2003 and police, doing patrols and searching houses for weapons. Two soldiers in Dassler's unit died. One was killed when his vehicle was hit by an explosive hidden in a light pole, the other in an exchange of gunfire with occupants of a vehicle that ran a checkpoint. Dassler was not supposed to have been in the vehicle that was hit by the bomb about 9 a.m. July 19. He was assigned to drive the second vehicle but replaced the driver of the platoon sergeant's Humvee because the other driver was off on a pass. He remembered that the explosion was deafening and made his ears ring. He looked at his leg and saw bones sticking out Adj. 1. sticking out - extending out above or beyond a surface or boundary; "the jutting limb of a tree"; "massive projected buttresses"; "his protruding ribs"; "a pile of boards sticking over the end of his truck" of it and yelled for a medic medic: see alfalfa. . ``I'd like to think I was pretty calm about it,'' Dassler said. Dassler recounted his war experiences Tuesday to an eighth-grade social studies class at Challenger Middle School, which he attended. Casually dressed in a yellow T-shirt and denim shorts, he added levity lev·i·ty n. pl. lev·i·ties 1. Lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate; frivolity. 2. Inconstancy; changeableness. 3. The state or quality of being light; buoyancy. to the class presentation by telling funny stories about his injury. He remembered that the medic tied a tourniquet tourniquet (t  r`nĭkĕt, –kā, tûr`–), compression device used to cut off the flow of blood to a part of the body, most often an arm or leg. around his leg and then said, ``Dude, your eyebrows are singed off.'' Dassler deadpanned, ``That's not the real problem.'' He has a T-shirt that says, ``Leg Story for 10 Bucks.'' Depending on who he's talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to , he will make up stories about how he lost his leg. In one version he tells people that he was in a really bad car accident but that he lost his leg when the ambulance door was slammed on it. He also has said he hurt his leg skateboarding, and it had to come off because it got infected. To be gentle, he once told a 2-year-old boy that his leg ``didn't want me anymore'' and ran away. The boy said that was sad. Dassler assured him the other leg would stay because he ``stapled it.'' The students to whom Dassler spoke wrote essays to be submitted to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post titled, ``Who Are Today's Patriots?'' Teacher Bruce Galler said some of his pupils struggled with the topic. ``I found out Andrew had returned. I thought here's a local 19-year-old patriot,'' Galler said. Why not let him come and speak, ``and teach them what a patriot is.'' Also present for Dassler's talk was his father, Steve, Lancaster public works assistant director and city engineer, and his mother, Brigitte, a noon duty supervisor at Challenger and instructional aide. Dassler is the fourth of sixth children. Dassler got commendations from Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San aide Norm Hickling and from the city of Lancaster The City of Lancaster (2002 population: 133,914) is a local government district with city status in Lancashire, England. Its main town is Lancaster, from which it obtained its city status. Other towns in the district include Morecambe, Heysham, Slyne, and Carnforth. from Wilsona School District board member Maurice Kunkel, who was a neighbor of the Dassler family. ``I remember when he was a little kid,'' Kunkel said. Before getting injured, Dassler had planned to make the military a career, but now plans to go back to school and become a computer graphics animator. He is at home for about three more weeks and then will return to Walter Reed Army Medical Center Walter Reed Army Medical Center, major hospital complex in Washington, D. C., and Forest Glen, Md.; est. 1923 and named for U.S. army surgeon Walter Reed. It is composed of seven units including a general hospital and a research institute. There are several thousand beds. in Washington, D.C., to continue his therapy. He will eventually get six different types of prosthetic legs that will allow him to do different things like running, jumping, swimming and pivoting. ``Half the time, I don't even know I have a prosthetic. It feels natural,'' Dassler said. Dassler said he would go to Iraq over again, even if he knew he was going to lose a limb. ``I just think that they need good government,'' he said. Karen Maeshiro, (661) 267-5744 karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Army Spec. Steven Andrew Dassler Jr. shows his prosthetic leg under shorts as he speaks to students in Bruce Galler's social studies class at Challenger Middle School. (2) Steve Dassler, right, tells how he heard about his son Andrew's wounds as he and his mother Brigitte listen in a social studies class appearance. (3) no caption (Steven Andrew Dassler Jr. holding up his prosthetic leg) Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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