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Airman survives 'million-dollar' wound

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. D. Clare
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq --  A combat cameraman for the 732nd Air Expeditionary Group received the Purple Heart and the Iraqi Campaign Medal from Brig. Gen. Burton M. Field, the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing commander, Oct. 14 at the Air Force Theater Hospital here.

Airman 1st Class Michael Brady, who is deployed from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., was performing an "in-lieu-of" tasking for the Army by providing visual information support for Soldiers when he was wounded in the neck by enemy fire near Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, Oct. 12.

Airman Brady received initial treatment at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. Despite the severity of his injury, doctors at the AFTH said Airman Brady will likely recover the ability to speak.

"They told me in Baghdad that this was a million dollar wound (like in Forrest Gump)," he wrote in a letter to his family after receiving the medals.

The Air Force is arranging to have Airman Brady's parents meet him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he is expected to recover, said Col. Karl Bosworth, the 732nd AEG commander.

"Sending a wounded warrior home is one of the most emotional parts of our job," the colonel said. "And we're very thankful and blessed that Michael is going to go home to recover. Sending him home to his family is a very good thing."

The 732nd AEG is responsible for more than 1,400 Airmen performing "in-lieu-of" taskings in Iraq. These Airmen fill a variety of non-traditional combat and combat support missions to augment the Army.

"We have a lot of Airmen out there fulfilling some very challenging tasks. They're patrolling with the Army and engaging the enemy," Colonel Bosworth said. "When someone is injured, it affects us all because we're a family."