[jessefan]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/n...raq/7227264.htm

Hazen soldier's foot amputated after Iraq ambush
Associated Press

HAZEN, N.D. - Deb Olson says it was enough just to hear her son breathe.

Olson, of Hazen, called Germany recently to talk to her son, Brandon, 21, who was wounded in a Nov. 1 ambush in Iraq.

Olson could tell he was in pain, and his voice was weak.

"I told him, 'You don't have to talk,'" she said. "I just want to hear you breathe."

Doctors amputated Brandon's right ankle and foot Friday, Olson said.

"The grenade pretty much ... there was nothing left to rebuild," she said.

Spc. Brandon Olson, a soldier with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, is to be transported soon to a medical center in Washington, D.C. As soon as Deb, and her husband, Doug, get definite word about the transfer, they plan to leave for Washington.

"Nothing's going to stop me," said Deb Olson.

The Olsons' other son, Blake, 18, is a University of Mary freshman.

Olson said Brandon was extremely shy in elementary school. He grew up to be an avid hunter.

When Brandon took on an outside-linebacker position on Hazen High School's football team, he was "only 160 or 170 pounds at best," recalled former Hazen football coach Todd Johnson.

"He made it up with his big heart and all," said Johnson, who is now retired. "He was fearless ... wasn't afraid of anybody,"

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Brandon Olson decided to join the Army. He told his mother it was something he had to do.

He would call periodically from Iraq so his family knew he was OK.

About 9 1/2 months had gone by when he called one day and told his mother it was not OK.

"Not this time, Mom," she remembers him saying.

When he gets back to Hazen, his coach and others will be waiting to help.

"We'll do everything we have to do to help him get adjusted," Johnson said.

"I'm waiting for it," said Dave Sebastian, a former boss who thinks of Brandon as family.

Johnson still has great confidence in his star linebacker.

"He's going to jump right up from this," Johnson said, "and do what he has to do."