Brave New Foundation: War Scar Chapter 1

Topic: Loss of Limb/Post-Traumatic Stress War Scar Chapter 1

Jerry Cortinas

Army Veteran

Lonnie C. Moore

Program Analyst

U.S. Army Warrior Transition Office

Jerry Cortinas

Jerry Cortinas served as a Green Beret in the U.S. Army Special Forces from 1997 to 2004. The focused and challenging work of a Green Beret was what he knew and what he loved. While operating a rocket propelled grenade in Afghanistan in December 2002, the device malfunctioned and exploded, taking his left forearm and hand. Jerry could no longer do his job. He felt like an outsider in his own hometown. And every day, as a husband and father of two girls, he was reminded of his limitations. Until, that is, he got on a snowboard.

Celina Cortinas

Celina Cortinas, Army wife and mother of two, was baking Christmas cookies in her Brownsville, Texas home when she got the call. The colonel on the other line gave her the news. Her husband of 12 years, Jerry, had been injured in Afghanistan. As a wife of an Army Special Forces soldier, she always knew it could happen, but wasn’t prepared for how much her life would change when her husband returned home with his right hand and forearm amputated. She would now face the challenge of helping her husband adapt to civilian life and supporting him as he returned to his role as husband and father.

And could the Iraq Theater dangerously implode once again, despite the walled in neighborhoods and the paying of the Iraqi insurgents and more?

Loyalists of Iraq’s Sadr sign blood oaths to continue fighting

Dozens of Shiite radicals scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against US forces in Iraq despite an order from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr for them to lay down their arms.