MAJ Dudek south of Hussainiyah in a Joint Security Station
"I truly didn’t expect anything to happen to me. As an Army Major, I studied the Counter Insurgency (COIN) Fight in Iraq in great detail. At COIN workshops, prior to our deployment, our Brigade’s senior leadership listened to Battalion Commander’s and civilian experts fresh from a year in Iraq’s most dangerous cities. As the Brigade Fire Support Officer in the newly generated Fourth Stryker Brigade Combat Team, I knew I was with the most proficient soldiers on the battlefield fielded with the latest equipment, automated systems and weapons including new wheeled armored vehicle called the Stryker. Nothing was going to happen to me. Anyways, I was on Brigade Staff and we rarely left the Forward Operating Base (FOB).
MAJ Dudek in his office at FOB Taji
Well, on July 19th, 2007, I did leave the FOB and that was the last time for me. When we left our FOB in Taji, Iraq I was in the lead Stryker Vehicle in the back left hatch in a convoy of five Strykers that made up the Brigade Commander’s Personal Security Detachment (PSD). I rarely went out with the Colonel and this was the first time in the lead vehicle. I usually rode with the Brigade Operations Officer, about three vehicles back, whose vehicle internal intercom was a little more entertaining. My job that day was to call in artillery, based out of Taji, on dirt patches near locations that had a high frequency of Improved Explosive Device (IED) attacks. We called that type of artillery missions “terrain denial”.
MAJ Dudek with the South West corner of Baquba in the distance (first day of Operations Arrowhead Ripper)
Near the northwest corner of a large Shi’a town called Hussainiyah I called in the first fire mission and waited to hear the words “shot” come over the radio, meaning the guns at Taji fired the rounds and I should expect to see the rounds impact about a kilometer from the stretch of road we slowly moved along. I was facing to the left from my left side hatch with only head and shoulder exposed out of the vehicle waiting for my rounds to come...BOOM!
I really don’t remember hearing it, the new Bose headset fit tightly around and under my helmet cut out the loud noise, but I remember the smell and seeing the smoke and laying flat on the inside of the Stryker. I was relaxed, not much pain at all expect for the needle like sensations from the inside of both my legs. I was listening to M4’s and 50cal main guns firing when I realized I couldn’t move my legs. I told the vehicle commander and waited knowing soon there would be someone to help me.
Within the next hour, I’d been on a casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) bird back to Balad, talked to my wife on a phone and had surgery to address the fractures to my lumbar vertebrae (L3 and L4) and sacrum and to stop the swelling of my spinal cord. The IED was an explosively formed projectile (EFP) that came from the right side of the vehicle killing the soldier next to me with molten pieces of copper hitting my back armored plate and lower back below the plate.
Danny and his wife Megan
Six months later, after a month at Walter Reed Medical Center and four months in the VA Hospital in Seattle, I would still not have sensation in my feet and ankles and muscle strength in my legs was far less than what I need to walk on my own. The care I received was incredible and the support I received from friends, family, the family readiness groups and the unit still in Iraq was even greater. I left the hospital walking with my new crutches with my wife wheeling my new wheelchair. In retrospect, I still see myself as lucky.
By February 2008, I was back in uniform and working with my units Read Detachment back on Fort Lewis. I’m still using my wheelchair to get around and crutches help me with short distances, but I feel I’m getting better every day. It remains my goal to stay in the active Army through my retirement eligibility in 2012. It may not be as an active artilleryman but there are many roles I can fill. There’s been nothing but positive support from friends and fellow soldiers on post. I still love serving in the military.">
MAJ Danny Dudek
Field Artillery
4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
