Injured Lt. Colonel Has Positive Outlook for Future

Lt. Col. Lanier Ward at work at the National War College in  Washington, D.C. He's had 21 surgeries after being wounded in an explosion in Iraq. (Newsline photo by Mike Santa Rita)

By Mike Santa Rita
Maryland Newsline
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - Lt. Col. Lanier Ward was a victim of one of the most common forms of battle-related injuries in Iraq: an explosion.

Luckily, Ward, 38, of McLean, Va., is close to being back on track with his life.

He works at the National War College, where he is a senior fellow at the National Strategic Gaming Center. He receives occupational therapy two to three times a week at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to restore movement to an arm that was almost lost. He is expecting to command a squadron or a battalion at Fort Knox, Ky., next year.

Married with a 5-year-old daughter, Ward is optimistic about his future.

But two years ago in Iraq, he came close to losing that future.

Stationed in Eastern Baghdad in June 2003 with the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment out of Beaumont, Texas, he had the job of policing schools, hospitals, local councils and local governments for the U.S. Army. Ward would go out regularly to check on the town’s safety.

“The environment was so dynamic that you just had to go out and sense it almost on a  daily basis,” he said.

On June 28, 2003, he was in a convoy of two Humvees heading to check on police stations' security when a roadside tire filled with artillery rounds was triggered. “I don’t know if life slowed down or sped up,” he said during a recent interview at the National War College.

Ward staggered from his Humvee, which had been torn apart by the explosion. He noticed that his right arm below his elbow had been severed from the joint and was hanging on by skin and tendon. He had shrapnel in his left foot.

“I made it round to the other side of the vehicle, and that’s where I essentially ran out of  gas,” he said.

Luckily, help came fast. A helicopter soon arrived to airlift him to a surgical team stationed at Baghdad International Airport.

At first the general surgeon at the airport was going to amputate the arm, Ward said, but an orthopedic surgeon was able to find two of the three nerves necessary to reconnect it. A surgeon also took a vein out of Ward’s leg and inserted it into his arm. That first surgery was fundamental to saving his arm, Ward said.

After a stop and more surgery in Germany, he was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. His rehabilitation, which ultimately consisted of 21 surgeries -- including 14 in Texas and four at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington -- began.

“I’ve hit black jack now, at 21” operations, Ward said. “I’m hoping to quit at black jack.”

He credits his wife, Heather, and daughter Allie, with help in his recovery.

They “have been there every step of the way,” he said. They “took care me when they had to … [and kicked] me in the butt when needed.”

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism