Two Hollister men are awarded Purple Hearts while serving in
Iraq
Hollister – It’s a national symbol of valor and courage. But for two Hollister residents who recently received the Purple Heart for being wounded during combat in Iraq, it’s just part of the job.
The prestigious award was bestowed upon Hollister residents Scott Brooks, 21, who is currently stationed in the city of Haditah in the western part of Iraq, and 21-year-old Ryan Gallant, who returned home to Hollister on Thursday.
After watching for suspicious activity around a town called Barwana, Brooks’ unit of 45 Marines was on its way back to the base when they were bombarded with enemy gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), he wrote in an e-mail.
As Brooks ducked down to return fire, two more RPGs struck the side of the road beside his truck and the explosion threw him back.
“I felt a burning sensation in my left arm and then the strange coolness of my own blood,” he said in the e-mail. “After my platoon commander called in an enemy contact report… we headed back to base. I went to bed that night, thankful to be alive, and extremely lucky to have come away from that whole ordeal with just a scratch.”
Medics at Brooks’ base bandaged his arm and no permanent damage was done, he said in the e-mail.
Brooks said he never thought he would receive such a prestigious award and feels extremely proud of his service.
“But I would still be equally proud to serve over here without it,” he said. “I have a duty to do what I’ve been sworn to do. The awards are just something that come with it.”
Brooks’ father, Hollister Police Capt. Robert Brooks, felt scared and relieved at the same time when his son called him and told him about the ambush, he said.
“After he hung up the phone I started what-iffing it – he could have easily been killed,” he said. “You feel an extreme sense of pride that he’s over there doing this, and an extreme sense of dread of what he’s being exposed to.”
While his son is still in Iraq – he’s slated to come home in January – Brooks’ father occupies his mind with thoughts about teaching his son how to ride a bike or throw a baseball when he was young, and the special things the family has planned when he returns home, he said.
“You think a lot about what you’ve done in the past and you think about the future,” he said. “You try not to think too much about the present. I was ready for him to come home the day he left.”
Gallant, a Navy medic, spent 16 months in the Al Anbar province in the western part of Iraq, near the Syrian border. The province includes Fallujah and is one of the more active spots in the country, he said.
In April Gallant was in a Humvee with four other members of his unit – the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment – setting up an observation post when the truck struck a land mine, he said.
The explosion blew off the entire back half of the vehicle, leaving one soldier with a broken back, another with a major leg wound and Gallant with shrapnel in his left arm, he said.
“I didn’t even notice it at first,” he said. “Then I looked down and I had a big piece of metal sticking out of my arm. Then it started to hurt a lot.”
Because the two other soldiers in Gallant’s unit were more severely injured than himself, he wrapped some gauze around his arm and immediately attended to them, he said. It wasn’t until 45 minutes after the shrapnel was imbedded that he received medical attention and it was finally taken out, he said.
He received about six stitches in his arm and no permanent damage.
“I received a Purple Heart for my injury that wasn’t as bad as other guys’,” he said. “Other guys received Purple Hearts who are missing limbs – it makes you wonder if what you got it for measures up to what they got it for.”
Gallant was also wounded two months later when a Humvee he was in struck a land mine about 100 yards from where the first explosion occurred. That time he dislocated his knee, and a second Purple Heart is pending for the injury, he said.
“Awards don’t make a huge difference,” he said. “Somebody who does a good job and excels at what they do – receiving the award lets other people know what you did. But you always know what you did.
His father, Scott Gallant, found out his son had been wounded while he was working at Kaiser Santa Teresa, but for several days didn’t know to what extent he was injured, he said.
“I had a melt down at work,” he said. “It was a tough day.”
When he finally found out the wound was minimal he was relieved, but it didn’t alleviate any of the stress he felt the entire time his son was over-seas, he said.
“We were so lucky that’s all that happened,” he said. “I talked to some other parents who lost someone, and although it was different, everyone knew every injury is monumental because you think about what could have happened versus what did happen.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
