First Sgt. David Gussberry of the U.S. Army Reserve's HHC420 Engineer Brigade returned to his Conway home on July 1 and continues to recover from injuries sustained on May 21 while serving in Afghanistan.
On Friday, Gussberry recounted the mission that almost took his life.
As part of a combat engineers unit, the 45 year-old was assigned to improve the quality of life for troops stationed at Forward Operating Base Sharana just outside the Afghan city of Sharana. Had an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade not intervened, he would have been busy helping improve electricity, water, communications and sanitation infrastructure at the base.
As things worked out, however, Gussberry, a veteran of one previous deployment to the Middle East in 2003 and 2004, decided to ride along with a personal security detachment to a nearby FOB.
"They asked me if I'd go along, and I said, 'Yeah,'" he said. "We did rehearsals, planning, working through possible scenarios."
As a rule, he explained, personal security detachments exist to ensure the safety of high-ranking officers in a war zone, but as no generals or other very-high-ranking officers would be riding in the convoy, the decision was made to stand and fight if insurgents attacked.
"We talked about it," he said, "and together decided that if we get in a firefight, we're actually going to stop and engage the enemy and take them out. We all decided that we would stop and fight.
"So we take off and we're probably an hour into the convoy and we're coming up a part of the road that was kind of winding and it narrowed. The next thing I know they sprung the ambush on us. Insurgents launched two RPGs to initiate the ambush, and both missed, luckily. I heard someone, my commander, yell, 'Contact right!,' which means we're taking fire from the right.
"I was sitting on the left hand side and our (Humvee's roof-mounted weapon) gunner opened up and he got five of the insurgents right off the bat. I kind of leaned up in my seat so I could see what I needed to be shooting at. About the time I did all that an insurgent shot a RPG through the back hatch of our Humvee."
The rocket exploded inside the rear cargo compartment of the Humvee, which is separated from the crew compartment by a blast wall, which is intended to stop small-arms rounds, not a direct hit from a RPG.
"The RPG penetrated the back hatch and hit the blast wall," he said, "which did take most of the blow, but when the shrapnel hit me, man, it immediately spun me around like Mike Tyson had walked up and knocked the crap out of me. I noticed blood was everywhere. Our gunner got hit in right leg, and he fell out of gun turret and down into my lap. When he looked up he immediately grabbed his first-aid kit and began performing first aid on me.
"There were still insurgents all along this mountain. What we were trying to do was pull up and set up a defensive position, and hopefully flank them. At the time I didn't think I was hit that bad. I wasn't feeling any pain. By the time we got set up they finally realized that I was in a serious condition. I still didn't think it was that bad, but they decided they were going to break contact and set up a medevac zone."
From here, Gussberry said, he lost consciousness two times. A helicopter was called in to lift the wounded soldier out of harm's way.
"The chopper came in and my medic came up to the Humvee. I had woke back up and was alert, talking to medic. The medic asked an aid and litter team to come get me, but I said I was OK. I undid my seat belt and took off walking for the chopper, got up and got in. They took me to Orgun-E, another FOB, and did their initial assessment of me. They didn't have x-rays at the FOB, but the doctor could see that I had a big hole in my head, so I was evacuated to Bagram Airbase.
"I took another chopper to Bagram. As soon as I touched down they rushed me in and did a CAT scan. That's when they told me I had a piece of metal in my brain. I was laying in a bed with a doctor on one side, chaplain on the other, and the doctor said I needed emergency surgery. I asked them to call my wife and the doctor explained to her what was going on. They rushed me in there and did surgery and the next thing I know they're packing me up and shipping me to Rammstein, Germany. By the time I got to Germany I was ready to get up and go walking."
But it wasn't all good news. In surgery, a dime-sized piece of shrapnel had been removed from his brain, damaging his optic nerves. After a few days in Germany, Gussberry was again transported, this time to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he began to notice problems with his vision.
"I was complaining about my eyesight," he said, "and they did tests on eyesight and tests for my brain injury to see how much I was comprehending. They decided I had some serious stuff going on, and sent me to Tampa, which has a VA hospital that specializes in that stuff. I got to a point at Tampa where they said 'it doesn't do us any good to keep you here as an inpatient; how'd you like to go home and pick up therapy as an outpatient?' I said 'heck yeah!'"
Starting at the end of this month, Gussberry will undergo "all kinds" of therapy. His doctors are saying that his impaired vision is permanent, and he is having trouble doing some simple daily tasks. He remains optimistic, however, that he'll recover fully.
"I'm just convinced that one of these day's I'll wake up and be back to 100 percent," he said. "That's why I'm going all-out in my physical therapy. You've just got to give it time."
Gussberry and his wife, Teresa, said they wanted to thank all the friends and family that have visited them since David returned to the United States, and also wanted to thank First State Bank for the charitable work they've done to help them and other families with loved ones fighting overseas.
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
