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http://wcco.com/localnews/local_story_216145934.html
Injured Soldier Glad To Be Back In Minnesota
Aug 4, 2003 1:58 pm US/Central
Dover, Minn. (AP) A soldier from Minnesota who was injured in Iraq got a hero's welcome from her siblings and an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins upon returning to her tiny hometown.
Pfc. Michelle Loftus arrived in Minnesota on Sunday, her face partially covered by a blue bandage when she landed at Rochester International Airport. The 19-year-old was struck by a land mine while on patrol outside Baghdad. The mine, detonated by Iraqis, was filled with nails, bullets and glass.
Seated in a Humvee when the mine went off, Loftus returned fire while the driver headed back to base. "At first it didn't seem real," she recalled. "I knew I had to keep myself calm."
Loftus was treated at the base and flown to a military hospital 40 miles south of Baghdad. She lost some teeth, had her pallet pushed back and underwent 2 1/2 hours of surgery. She faces more surgery.
"She was so lucky," said her father, Gene Loftus, explaining that she came close be being blinded, suffering brain damage or being killed. "She was hit pretty hard," he said. "She will get a purple heart."
For the next nine days, Michelle Loftus will remain at the family farm outside Dover, a city of about 450 people.
One of seven children, Loftus graduated from the Dover-Eyota High School in 2002. She joined the Army that July and became a private first class with the 581st Medical Unit.
Her extended family applauded as Loftus -- accompanied by her parents -- arrived at the airport.
She went straight to three younger siblings -- Ashley, 16, Katie, 15, and Eathan, 11 -- and the four circled their arms around each other, bowed their heads and cried. Other family members waited at the family farm after decorating the driveway with U.S. flags and marking the roads from the airport to the farm with welcome home signs.
U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht thanked Loftus for her service and presented her with a U.S. flag that had been flown over the Capitol.
"It's really nice to be back home," Loftus said. "My mind is still with my unit ... My fingers are crossed for them and I can't wait to welcome them home."
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Update On Pfc. Michelle Loftus
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Posted 05 August 2003 - 02:21 PM
This link has a picture of her.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/4024923.html
Injured Army medic returns to Minnesota a hero
Paul Levy, Star Tribune
Published August 5, 2003 LOFT05
An Iraqi land mine had just exploded near Pfc. Michelle Loftus' face, costing the Dover, Minn., native three teeth in the front of her mouth and pushing back her palate. But it was no time to give in to pain, she said.
"You snap back into reality pretty fast," Loftus, 19, said Monday from her family's home near Rochester. "Yes, it was shocking, but I always knew that I'd be in the military, that something like this could happen. I had to stay calm. As the gunner sitting behind the driver in our Humvee, all I could think of was firing back.
"As soon as I could, I wanted to see it," she said of her wounds. "At first, it was hard, but everything is fixable. What are a few scars compared to losing a life?"
Loftus, who was on patrol outside of Baghdad, was struck by shrapnel from a mine filled with nails, bullets and glass. The 2 1/2 hours of surgery she underwent was the first of several expected operations, she said.
She returned to Minnesota on Sunday, with her face partially covered by a blue bandage and her spirit fully intact.
"It's a big pride thing, wanting to do my part for my country, and the Army seemed the best way," said the 2002 graduate of Dover-Eyota High School.
"The scars will heal. I'd still strongly encourage anybody looking to join the military."
Loftus, who will receive the Purple Heart, comes from a family that has marched off to the military for years. Her parents met in Guam while both were in the Navy. Older sister Shannon, 26, is a nurse in the Air Force and another sister, Christine, 24, finished a tour with the Air Force, as a civil engineer, in December.
Michelle joined the Army a year ago July and became a private first class with the 581st Area Medical Support Company, based at Fort Hood, Texas.
"There's no greater thing, in my perspective," said Michelle, one of seven children.
"When I left the States for Iraq on March 19, I was excited to go," she said. "You're nervous because you don't know what's waiting for you when you land. But this is what I was trained to do."
Even though she is a medic, she was expected to be able to shoot.
Back home for now, Loftus will remain at the family farm outside Dover, a city of about 450 people in Olmsted County, for nine days.
On Sunday she landed in Rochester and walked with her parents as her extended family gave her a hero's welcome. She embraced three younger siblings -- Ashley, 16, Katie, 15, and Eathan, 11 -- and the four circled their arms around each other and cried. Other family members waited at the farm after decorating the driveway with U.S. flags.
U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht thanked Loftus and presented her with a flag that had been flown over the Capitol.
"I couldn't feel any better," she said. "Physically, I feel great. I'm up on my feet and moving around.
"I knew there would be a celebration when I came home, but it's weird. It's great to be recognized, but there's people over there who get injured every day. I just hope they get the same support I've received."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/4024923.html
| QUOTE |
| It's a big pride thing, wanting to do my part for my country, and the Army seemed the best way," said the 2002 graduate of Dover-Eyota High School. "The scars will heal. I'd still strongly encourage anybody looking to join the military." |
Injured Army medic returns to Minnesota a hero
Paul Levy, Star Tribune
Published August 5, 2003 LOFT05
An Iraqi land mine had just exploded near Pfc. Michelle Loftus' face, costing the Dover, Minn., native three teeth in the front of her mouth and pushing back her palate. But it was no time to give in to pain, she said.
"You snap back into reality pretty fast," Loftus, 19, said Monday from her family's home near Rochester. "Yes, it was shocking, but I always knew that I'd be in the military, that something like this could happen. I had to stay calm. As the gunner sitting behind the driver in our Humvee, all I could think of was firing back.
"As soon as I could, I wanted to see it," she said of her wounds. "At first, it was hard, but everything is fixable. What are a few scars compared to losing a life?"
Loftus, who was on patrol outside of Baghdad, was struck by shrapnel from a mine filled with nails, bullets and glass. The 2 1/2 hours of surgery she underwent was the first of several expected operations, she said.
She returned to Minnesota on Sunday, with her face partially covered by a blue bandage and her spirit fully intact.
"It's a big pride thing, wanting to do my part for my country, and the Army seemed the best way," said the 2002 graduate of Dover-Eyota High School.
"The scars will heal. I'd still strongly encourage anybody looking to join the military."
Loftus, who will receive the Purple Heart, comes from a family that has marched off to the military for years. Her parents met in Guam while both were in the Navy. Older sister Shannon, 26, is a nurse in the Air Force and another sister, Christine, 24, finished a tour with the Air Force, as a civil engineer, in December.
Michelle joined the Army a year ago July and became a private first class with the 581st Area Medical Support Company, based at Fort Hood, Texas.
"There's no greater thing, in my perspective," said Michelle, one of seven children.
"When I left the States for Iraq on March 19, I was excited to go," she said. "You're nervous because you don't know what's waiting for you when you land. But this is what I was trained to do."
Even though she is a medic, she was expected to be able to shoot.
Back home for now, Loftus will remain at the family farm outside Dover, a city of about 450 people in Olmsted County, for nine days.
On Sunday she landed in Rochester and walked with her parents as her extended family gave her a hero's welcome. She embraced three younger siblings -- Ashley, 16, Katie, 15, and Eathan, 11 -- and the four circled their arms around each other and cried. Other family members waited at the farm after decorating the driveway with U.S. flags.
U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht thanked Loftus and presented her with a flag that had been flown over the Capitol.
"I couldn't feel any better," she said. "Physically, I feel great. I'm up on my feet and moving around.
"I knew there would be a celebration when I came home, but it's weird. It's great to be recognized, but there's people over there who get injured every day. I just hope they get the same support I've received."
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Posted 06 August 2003 - 03:20 PM
More pictures. She's doing better. But she's already had a least one flackback.
http://news.mpr.org/features/2003/08/06_zd...chlikm_soldier/
Soldier wounded in Iraq on the mend back home in Minnesota
by Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio
August 6, 2003
Private First Class Michelle Loftus sits in front of a welcome home sign in the yard of the family farm she grew up on in sourthern Minnesota (MPR Photo/ Mark Zdechlik)
This weekend Pfc. Michelle Loftus, 19, will be honored with a celebration at her family farm near Rochester. Loftus was seriously injured in an attack near Baghdad in mid-July. Loftus is lucky to be alive. She is now on the mend in Dover, Minn.
Dover, Minn. — A half a world away from Iraq's scorching heat and devastation and its ever-present danger, the Loftus family farm is a 200-acre slice of paradise nestled in the rolling hills of southeastern Minnesota.
Cattle in the pasture by the barn, chickens meandering about the yard and sheets waving on the clothesline complete the storybook setting. There's a lot of red, white and blue. Tiny American flags line the driveway.
Loftus says being home is wonderful. So was seeing the lush green vegetation that surrounds the farm.
"The first thing you want to do is kick off you shoes and walk around barefoot because you haven't been able to do like the little things like that for a long time for a long time," she says.
Sitting and talking at a picnic table Loftus' injury is obvious from the bandage covering the area between her nose and mouth. She recalls always wanting to join the military. She enlisted before her senior year of high school and shipped out for basic training last summer only a month after graduation. She says she always knew serving would be dangerous but she never expected such a close brush with death.
"There's never a day that you know that you can take for granted." Loftus says. "We were so close to never seeing our families and stuff again. It was tough to kind of think about that but at the same time we're grateful and thankful. And I guess just downright lucky."
Loftus was trained as a combat medic. In Baghdad her job was to care for injured Iraqi prisoners. She arrived in the city two days after U.S. troops took control of the airport this spring. Shortly before Loftus was to leave the base at Baghdad International Airport for a trip back to the United States, a homemade bomb propelled shrapnel into here face.
"It was made of nails, clay...just scrap metal type stuff." Loftus says.
Loftus had joined six other GI's for a volunteer mission to check out a road under consideration for her upcoming convey out of Baghdad to Kuwait.
"We were just basically going to to see how safe the road was and we went out of the gate and went probably 20 miles out from the base and everything looked good," she remembers. "Then on our way back we were about five minutes from the gate when the explosion happened."
Loftus and the others were traveling in two Humvees.
"It was surprising and everything I mean we didn't see it coming at all because of where it was positioned on the road. I kind of felt it and heard it at the same time so to mean reflexes just kicked in," she says.
Loftus began firing her M-16, not realizing the extent of her injuries. Moments later fellow medics rushed her back to the airport base. She was stabilized, then transported by helicopter to a nearby hospital. The first of what will be several surgeries to rebuild parts of her mouth and face took 2 1/2 hours.
Her injuries were severe.
"The top part of my lip and the between my nose and top lip that area was peeled open. My lip kind of hung down and I had a slice across my cheek and during surgery they patched up my palate and fixed my gums as much as they could but there's too much tissue missing so they couldn't patch it all together," she said.
Loftus's spirits are high. Some bruising remains around her left eye, but she says she's recovering well. Already the stitches on her cheek have been removed.
She says relating the news of her injuries to her family was tough.
"When I called to tell my mom and dad that you know, that I wasn't OK and that I wasn't going to be coming home the same way as I left. That was definitely out of this entire thing was definitely the hardest part."
Having Michelle back on the farm is a tremendous relief for family. Ethan Loftus, 11, is one of Michelle's six brothers and sisters.
"At first it was really horrifying because we didn't know really anything," said Ethan says. "All we knew is that she's been hurt and in serious condition and that's all we knew."
In the town of Dover, a few miles of the farm, Robert Bedtke stands outside of his grain elevator. He says Loftus' injuries have sparked a lot of local discussion about the war with Iraq.
"I know the family fairly well and you get to wonder, you know, what other kids are doing over there. I call them kids because they're young. You know like the boy up by the cities got killed that's further away, but when it comes only four or five miles from your area and you know the people, then you say you know it can happen to anybody," Bedtke said.
Michell Loftus says she's looking forward to the open house her family is hosting for her at the farm. She wants to thank people for their outpouring of support.
"We've been getting cards and phone calls and things like that," she says.
Loftus says her medical training has prepared her well to care for herself. She dresses her own wounds and says she can easily assess progress in her recovery.
As for the trauma of the attack, it's something she'll never forget.
"I was doing really well until about last night. Something fell and it triggered the same sound of the explosion and I guess in my dreams I heard some of the same things and I kind of woke up and it took me a minute to realize where I was," Loftus says. "I just kind of had to calm myself down for a minute there. I mean it was crystal clear in my mind, the sound of the people talking or yelling."
Loftus will travel to her base in Texas soon to welcome home the rest of her unit. She'll then be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks before returning to Texas for another round of surgeries.
She's hopeful she'll be finished with operations by Christmas time.
http://news.mpr.org/features/2003/08/06_zd...chlikm_soldier/
Soldier wounded in Iraq on the mend back home in Minnesota
by Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio
August 6, 2003
Private First Class Michelle Loftus sits in front of a welcome home sign in the yard of the family farm she grew up on in sourthern Minnesota (MPR Photo/ Mark Zdechlik)
This weekend Pfc. Michelle Loftus, 19, will be honored with a celebration at her family farm near Rochester. Loftus was seriously injured in an attack near Baghdad in mid-July. Loftus is lucky to be alive. She is now on the mend in Dover, Minn.
Dover, Minn. — A half a world away from Iraq's scorching heat and devastation and its ever-present danger, the Loftus family farm is a 200-acre slice of paradise nestled in the rolling hills of southeastern Minnesota.
Cattle in the pasture by the barn, chickens meandering about the yard and sheets waving on the clothesline complete the storybook setting. There's a lot of red, white and blue. Tiny American flags line the driveway.
Loftus says being home is wonderful. So was seeing the lush green vegetation that surrounds the farm.
"The first thing you want to do is kick off you shoes and walk around barefoot because you haven't been able to do like the little things like that for a long time for a long time," she says.
Sitting and talking at a picnic table Loftus' injury is obvious from the bandage covering the area between her nose and mouth. She recalls always wanting to join the military. She enlisted before her senior year of high school and shipped out for basic training last summer only a month after graduation. She says she always knew serving would be dangerous but she never expected such a close brush with death.
"There's never a day that you know that you can take for granted." Loftus says. "We were so close to never seeing our families and stuff again. It was tough to kind of think about that but at the same time we're grateful and thankful. And I guess just downright lucky."
Loftus was trained as a combat medic. In Baghdad her job was to care for injured Iraqi prisoners. She arrived in the city two days after U.S. troops took control of the airport this spring. Shortly before Loftus was to leave the base at Baghdad International Airport for a trip back to the United States, a homemade bomb propelled shrapnel into here face.
"It was made of nails, clay...just scrap metal type stuff." Loftus says.
Loftus had joined six other GI's for a volunteer mission to check out a road under consideration for her upcoming convey out of Baghdad to Kuwait.
"We were just basically going to to see how safe the road was and we went out of the gate and went probably 20 miles out from the base and everything looked good," she remembers. "Then on our way back we were about five minutes from the gate when the explosion happened."
Loftus and the others were traveling in two Humvees.
"It was surprising and everything I mean we didn't see it coming at all because of where it was positioned on the road. I kind of felt it and heard it at the same time so to mean reflexes just kicked in," she says.
Loftus began firing her M-16, not realizing the extent of her injuries. Moments later fellow medics rushed her back to the airport base. She was stabilized, then transported by helicopter to a nearby hospital. The first of what will be several surgeries to rebuild parts of her mouth and face took 2 1/2 hours.
Her injuries were severe.
"The top part of my lip and the between my nose and top lip that area was peeled open. My lip kind of hung down and I had a slice across my cheek and during surgery they patched up my palate and fixed my gums as much as they could but there's too much tissue missing so they couldn't patch it all together," she said.
Loftus's spirits are high. Some bruising remains around her left eye, but she says she's recovering well. Already the stitches on her cheek have been removed.
She says relating the news of her injuries to her family was tough.
"When I called to tell my mom and dad that you know, that I wasn't OK and that I wasn't going to be coming home the same way as I left. That was definitely out of this entire thing was definitely the hardest part."
Having Michelle back on the farm is a tremendous relief for family. Ethan Loftus, 11, is one of Michelle's six brothers and sisters.
"At first it was really horrifying because we didn't know really anything," said Ethan says. "All we knew is that she's been hurt and in serious condition and that's all we knew."
In the town of Dover, a few miles of the farm, Robert Bedtke stands outside of his grain elevator. He says Loftus' injuries have sparked a lot of local discussion about the war with Iraq.
"I know the family fairly well and you get to wonder, you know, what other kids are doing over there. I call them kids because they're young. You know like the boy up by the cities got killed that's further away, but when it comes only four or five miles from your area and you know the people, then you say you know it can happen to anybody," Bedtke said.
Michell Loftus says she's looking forward to the open house her family is hosting for her at the farm. She wants to thank people for their outpouring of support.
"We've been getting cards and phone calls and things like that," she says.
Loftus says her medical training has prepared her well to care for herself. She dresses her own wounds and says she can easily assess progress in her recovery.
As for the trauma of the attack, it's something she'll never forget.
"I was doing really well until about last night. Something fell and it triggered the same sound of the explosion and I guess in my dreams I heard some of the same things and I kind of woke up and it took me a minute to realize where I was," Loftus says. "I just kind of had to calm myself down for a minute there. I mean it was crystal clear in my mind, the sound of the people talking or yelling."
Loftus will travel to her base in Texas soon to welcome home the rest of her unit. She'll then be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks before returning to Texas for another round of surgeries.
She's hopeful she'll be finished with operations by Christmas time.
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