KELLY PARRSON, A PROGRESSIVE DEM IN WISCONSIN-- BACK FROM IRAQ AND RUNNING FOR ASSEMBLY

Randy Koehn is a friend of mine from Firedoglake who's running for the open 89th Assembly District seat in Wisconsin. Randy is an awesome progressive candidate and I'll be writing more about his race closer to November. But a few days ago Randy introduced me to a friend of his who is also running for the Wisconsin Assembly (36th District), Kelly Parrson. Kelly recently returned to Wisconsin from Iraq, pretty badly wounded and with a compelling story. Actually, there are two compelling stories-- one about what Kelly went through in Iraq and the other about what he went through after he returned. A Captain in the Wisconsin National Guard, his story starts in late 2003 immediately after he had signed an employment contract as a physician's assistant with a local doctor. I'll let Kelly take it from there.

I thought I was set for life, and then I had to answer the darn phone. On December 7th I was mobilized and on my way to New York, of all places... to get acclimated to the frosty weather of Iraq.

Once in the box I was quickly snagged by the active duty and sent to the infamous prison [Abu Ghraib] to be a part of a Task Force, a forward support hospital. I am not sure if you are familiar with the army but an FSH is a little smaller than an old MASH unit but bigger then a company size Battalion Aid Station. So let me explain personnel wise: more than a ONE PHYSICIAN'S ASSISTANT AND ONE DOCTOR (who was also the company commander). It was short staffed and basically placed there to make the French and the Iraqi government happy; I don't think they ever thought we would see and do what we did.

We were told the minute we hit the prison no pics allowed... ya right. The only thing in the TIME Magazine story that pissed me off was he left off "traumatic" in front of "amputations." So it looks as though we were just chopping away. The gist of the story was to show the world how you can throw together a group of people and be successful-- which we were. But you know the press: anything to sell a story and ruin the life of a wounded soldier. [A report on this February 7, 2005 at DAILY KOS]
 
We were not at full speed or even close when we had our first mass casualties. During this time we did re-use chest tubes and did not have the needed supplies; Internal Medicine doctors and a couple of ER doctors as well as myself did things that if we did in the States would have gotten us hung.  But that is my story and not the active duty soldier's story since they are lifers.
 
As for my injury you need to read this carefully and ask your doctor friends about this. The first week I was blown out of a porta-john and landed face first and was... well, covered with shit. I had a cut leg and a sore right shoulder but kept working. I did not go and run to the EMT and report any injuries. Then I dove during an attack coming from chow once and again when coming from the phone center. On June 28th I work up and found myself on the floor bleeding from my head and holding my right shoulder. I threw on my gear and reported to my duty station. I cleaned up and no one else was hurt so I went back to my bunk. So I am not sure if that was when I hurt my shoulder or just finally noticed it. But I continued to work in pain and didn't get any substantial sleep for three more weeks because of the staffing problems. That's when my commander ordered me to seek treatment. I did not ask to go anywhere.  

On July 20th I was flown to Baghdad and dropped off, that was the last time I ever saw or heard from anyone in my command. I was seen by a Physical Therapist there and he said he thought I needed to go to Germany to be examined. So I slept in a tent outside the hospital with other wounded soldiers, with no idea what the hell was going on... and I was a Captain. On July 22 they flew me to Germany and I was seen by an Air force doctor who told me he could do nothing and my shoulder was a chronic problem. He sent me to Walter Reed in D.C.

All this time and no one has called my wife to inform her I was hurt and coming State-side. So a nurse gave me 30 seconds to call DeAnna and I said I hurt my shoulder and I will be in D.C in 14 hours. That is all she knew. No one has yet called her.

I arrives in D.C. went directly to CT and from there I went to surgery the next morning the doctor told me I might lose the function of my right shoulder due to the length of time I was injured. My right shoulder was posterior dislocated and my humeral head was shattered. I ended up with a prosthetic joint, and a total reconstruction of my right shoulder. Well to make this a short story, ya right, I work in orthopedics and you seldom see a posterior dislocated shoulder unless it is a severe blow and I have never seen a shattered humeral head in anyone under 70. So I was at Walter Reed with my wife for about a month and still no one said squat to me or even tried to see how I was. 

We came home and it was not until DeAnna notified Central Command that they knew I was even hurt. So I sat for 12 months trying to convince the VA I was in Iraq, and asked around about the Purple Heart since I had no idea and I had plenty of time on my hands. I was so broke, we sold everything we could. DeAnna put the house in her name and all I had in my name was my truck. So now we are in debt up to our ass and since Iraq, our credit ratting hit the lowest possible and it even costs us to fart now. 

So 18 months have gone by and I get released and go get my job back and it is not there. The local hospital brought my doc's practice and told me to take a flying leap. Being hard headed I had the DOD and some other folks look into it and... well, how can I sad it any nicer? I Was FUCKED! I went from 110,000.00 a year to zero with a new shoulder and to top that off I had a couple of seizures when I came home and they dug a piece of shrapnel out of my head. The neurologist and his team said I suffered a severe concussion and had some loss of memory and cognitive ability. But since this was after I was out [of the military] once again I was FUCKED!

Then I got a job at the hospital with a group of ER docs that I had worked for for many years, part-time and full-time and ... lo and behold I stuck up for the rights of an uninsured patient and got fired.

That is when I said, "This has got to change!" and decided to run for office and kick some ass. I am fed up with the bullshit hard working Americans have to go through. And I want to know why we have 500,000 homeless veterans-- 53% of them from 2003. If it's because they are taking us away from our jobs and that we find nothing but loopholes when we get home? Loopholes so big you could drive Uncle Bush's ego through them.
 
Thanks for your time and concern for the returning veterans and the way America is being held hostage by the Republicans!

You can contribute to Kelly's campaign here. And while you're at it, you can think about all the candidates on the DWT ACT BLUE Page who have enlisted in the military to defend our country and have come out of it a committed progressive looking to turn around and defend America from as big a threat as any we have faced on the battlefield: George W. Bush and his greed-obsessed cabal of Republicrooks. On this Independence Day Weekend, I'd ask you to lend a special hand to John Laesch (IL), Joseph Sestak (PA), Patrick Murphy (PA), Rick Penberthy (FL) and Coleen Rowley (MN).