EL PASO, Texas (Dec. 8, 2011) -- "For me, earning the Purple Heart means it was a day when I wasn't at my best, and they got me," said Staff Sgt. Everette Adam Palmer, artilleryman with B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.
Palmer and nine others were recognized for their service and valor, the deeds that earned them the Purple Heart, at the Double Tree El Paso Downtown/City Center hotel, at a banquet given by the Rotary Club of El Paso Dec. 1.
The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action.
"Only 1 percent of this nation wears the uniform," said Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty, 1st AD and Fort Bliss deputy commanding general for operations and guest speaker at the event. "Out of that 1 percent, most of the Soldiers came in after 9/11. They knew the risks involved and they raised their hand to serve this country and go fight."
"Not only do they have to carry the scars in their bodies, but they also have to carry
the scars in their minds and in their hearts," said Twitty.
Palmer bears many scars and was privileged to keep his life and his limbs after an attack July 14, 2009, that earned him the Purple Heart.
"I thought I was going to die," said Palmer, who was two months into his unit's deployment when his convoy was attacked. "We left our FOB (Forward Operating Base Hunter) en route to FOB Gary Owen. My vehicle got hit on my side with an EFP (explosively formed projectile). "It knocked my door off and the dash [board] fell on my legs and it broke my right femur, my left tibia, and I had shrapnel that broke both bones in my right forearm," he said. "Then I had shrapnel hit me in my left knee -- hit my femoral artery."
Palmer and the assigned medic placed tourniquets on his right arm and left leg. His platoon sergeant and a few others pulled him from under the vehicle, which was on top of his fuel-drenched body. Their request for an air medical evacuation was denied due to a dust storm.
"Since I was bleeding pretty badly my platoon sergeant made the call that we could take one vehicle to Gary Owen," he said. Conscious the entire time, the hospital at Gary Owen placed Palmer into a medically induced coma and performed emergency surgery. He awoke 27 hours later in Baghdad en route to Germany. "The first thing I thought of was my family."
His next stop was Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, and finally, he was transported to the Warrior Transition Battalion here to witness his Soldiers come home. This was Palmer's third and final deployment.
Staff Sgt. Kevin Fitzpatrick of 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st AD, was also among those honored. While serving with 2nd Bn., 3rd FA Regt., 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st AD, as a field artillery tactical data systems specialist, he earned his Purple Heart.
"We had been in Tal-Afar, Iraq, for 12 hours," he said. "We were doing a routine [presence] patrol and ... we got hit with an IED."
The blast was on the passenger side of the up-armored Humvee, where Fitzpatrick was sitting. He suffered wounds from shrapnel to his elbow and upper thigh. Pushing forward, the convoy returned to their forward operating base where the truck broke down. After treatment and in spite of his wounds, he continued to serve with his unit for the duration of his second deployment. Fitzpatrick was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and myclonic muscle jerks.
Spc. James Price was the 10th to be honored at the day's banquet. He served with the 29th Engineers, 1st BCT, 1AD, when he earned his Purple Heart. At 20 years old, he was on a convoy conducting a route-clearance patrol in Iraq in September 2010.
"We just kept getting hit on the left," said Price. "I was the lead-vehicle gunner, and an angled improvised explosive device hit my gunner's turret. I was knocked unconscious, bleeding out of my ears, nose and eyes.
"I really couldn't feel anything," he added. "My eyes were just rolling, but like, nothing was going on. My eyes were open but nothing was there."
Price was sent to Germany for stabilization and is now part of the Warrior Transition Battalion here waiting to complete his medical board. He was 10 months into a 12-month deployment when he suffered this brutal concussion. His ailments include PTSD, severe TBI, retrograde and anterograde amnesia, chronic anxiety and bilateral vestibulopathy (imbalance and vision loss).
Although his experience birthed his current diagnoses, Price said he does not begrudge his deployment, but rather learned to appreciate what he has.
"A lot of people take the military for granted; [they] take the [United] States for granted and don't know what they got," he said. "I admit I took the States for granted, but once I went to Iraq, I realized what I had."
Price and the others said it was good to be honored and were grateful to the Rotary Club of El Paso.
"Being [recognized] by an organization of that ability is a tremendous honor," said Fitzpatrick.
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