Healing a Deep Wound from Iraq

NPR | By Eric Westervelt

Published June 27, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT

Spc. Bartlett and his father, Chuck Bartlett, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who was seriously injured during the Tet Offensive in May 1968.

Spc. Robert Bartlett in his room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. June 2005.

More than 13,070 U.S. troops have been injured in Iraq, with just over half of those injured unable to return to duty. One recovering soldier is 32-year-old Robert Bartlett, an Army scout with the 3rd Infantry Division.

A roadside bomb in early May killed his friend and ripped off Bartlett's jaw, took out one eye and badly injured the soldier's face, nose and mouth. Bartlett's father, a Vietnam war veteran injured in the Tet offensive, is helping his son recover physically and mentally. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.

Eric Westervelt

Eric Westervelt is a San Francisco-based correspondent for NPR's National Desk. He has reported on major events for the network from wars and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa to historic wildfires and terrorist attacks in the U.S.

See stories by Eric Westervelt

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All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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