Wounded Warrior’s Story: Thank You Corporal Zachary Briseno
Marine Corporal Zachary Briseno remembers lying in a hospital bed in December 2007 in Bethesda, Md., having just lost both of his lower legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq and thinking that life as he had known it was over.
President George W. Bush visits Corporal Zachary Briseno (Photo Courtesy of Soldiers Angels)
That’s when he learned otherwise, and found out that Americans, particularly groups such as Hope For The Warriors, do appreciate the sacrifices of the nation’s warriors.
Briseno, now 24, was riding in a Humvee in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 29, 2007, when Iraqi insurgents detonated the bomb. It blew a hole in the floorboard beneath Briseno and mangled his legs and right arm so badly that the legs couldn’t be saved. Doctors in Iraq amputated both below the knees.
Within two days, Briseno went from Iraq to Germany to Maryland, where he was left lying in a hospital bed with no legs to ponder his future.
“There was no way doctors could save my legs,” Briseno said. “There was really nothing left. There was a nurse who didn’t realize that I’d just lost both of my legs, and she made a comment to the effect that I’d be walking again in no time, and I said, ‘No, I won’t.’
“I didn’t intend to be mean towards her, but she realized right then that I’d lost both of my legs and she started crying and had to walk out of the room. That’s when I started crying again. I really broke down thinking, ‘This is the reality now. I don’t have legs anymore.’ ”
Then he received a visit from a gunnery sergeant who also was a double amputee.
“He had pants on, and I was amazed that this dude was missing both of his legs and I couldn’t tell,” Briseno said. “He let me know that it’s not so bad. He skydived, scuba dived, snowboarded. He does everything that you can think of; he just does it with prosthetic legs. From then on, that gave me hope.
“I was very thankful that he stopped by. If he didn’t, I probably would’ve been depressed a lot more and just thought about the things I would never be able to do again.”
Members of the Soldiers’ Angels support group came to Briseno’s side in the hospital and were later joined by Hope For The Warriors members. The groups exist to help wounded soldiers and their families.
“They’re like a whole other family, your other mothers,” Briseno said. “They do nothing but help us out in any way they can. … The little trips they take us on just to get us away from home, away from thinking about the injuries – getting to go to New York, to Yankee games, having fun – it’s awesome.”
Briseno volunteered for the Marines straight out of high school.
“It was one of those childhood dream things,” Briseno said. “At first I didn’t know too much about it, I liked the uniforms. My brother’s friends joined, and they were almost like brothers to me because they were over all the time with him. As I got older, my friends started joining. I learned about what Marines are and what they do, and that made me want to go and do it. … It was something I always wanted to do, and I believe I did the right thing. I don’t regret it.”
Briseno trained as a motor transportation operator and first was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
“A gunnery sergeant (in Okinawa) pulled us into a room and she was all in tears,” he said. “They wanted volunteers to go to Iraq. I was kind of excited about that so I raised my hand. … The next thing you know, we were shipping off. I was excited and nervous at the same time. Other people were doing it, so I wanted to do it, too, go over there and do my part.”
He was stationed in Fallujah and had been there a month when his first son, Elijah, was born. Briseno didn’t see him in person until he returned stateside from his first tour of duty in Iraq.
“We got to live out in town with the Iraqi people,” he said. “The first place we lived at was a broken down, shot-up building that pretty much just had three walls on it. The whole side facing the street was nothing but sandbags and bulletproof glass.”
On Nov. 29, 2007, Briseno, now on his second tour in Iraq, and two other Marines were returning to a newer compound at night in an up-armoured Humvee. Briseno was in the passenger seat, and they were five or six blocks from home.
“It had been a long day and I was just thinking I wanted to go back and watch a movie, hang out with the guys, write a letter home,” he said. “We were just making small talk, having conversations about whatever, and all of the sudden we heard a big boom and saw a flash. It felt like somebody had just hit me as hard as they could right in my face. It knocked the back of my seat flat. I was pretty much blown into the back seat.”
An anti-tank mine had exploded directly underneath Briseno’s seat, blowing a mushroomed hole in the floorboard and mangling his legs. Both main bones and the wrist of his right arm also were broken.
“I didn’t lose consciousness at all,” he said. “At first I was dazed and I could smell something burning and it was like, ‘What happened? What happened?’ Then I realized that it was a (bomb) and I started to get mad, but I didn’t know right away that I had been hurt. I was just dazed, then I heard people screaming, trying to get things together. I asked my driver and my gunner if they were OK and they said they were fine, and that’s when I started to feel like something was not right. I couldn’t feel from my waist down. I couldn’t feel anything at all.
“I brought my hands up to my face and on my right arm my hand was bent halfway down to my elbow. … That’s when I told the guys, ‘I’m hit. I’m hit. Let’s go.’ I remember screaming. That’s when I started feeling the pain really, really bad. I was just letting it all out. They told me I was screaming for my son and telling them to tell him that I love him, and calling for Jennifer, my fiancée.
“My gunner was trying to hold me and calm me down, telling me it was going to be OK. The guys didn’t know how I was still alive,”. They said later on that what saved my life was that I was sitting on top of the batteries for the vehicle. They said the lead from the batteries helped contain the explosion.”
The driver was able to get the damaged Humvee back to the compound, where Marines converged on Briseno. He said he kept trying to raise himself to look at his lower body, but others kept pushing him back.
Briseno’s father, who had served in the Army, died the week before his son returned to Iraq.
“My guys were standing around me and I saw my dad standing behind them and looking down, not saying anything, but he had this distinct look that said, ‘You’re going to be OK,’ ” Briseno said. “That’s when I calmed down and knew I was going to be alright.”
After Maryland, Briseno was sent to the Brooke military hospital in San Antonio for rehabilitation therapy. It was there that he received his first set of prosthetic legs and learned to walk again.
“I had a big problem at first when I didn’t have my legs yet,” he said. “I wasn’t used to people just staring. It would really really get me mad that people would just stare, to the point to where I was in tears, I was so frustrated. Obviously I had an accident and something happened. In San Antonio with the military being so big there, sometimes people automatically just know, ‘Hey, this guy got hurt in combat.’ They’ll just come up and whisper a thank you or just walk up out of the middle of nowhere and stop me and give me a hug and tell me ‘thank you.’
“I’m to the point now where I’m comfortable with it and will ask them if they would like to know what happened.”
Helped by the visit from the fellow amputee and groups such as Hope For The Warriors and Soldier’s Angels, Briseno started regaining his life. Within a year, he had surfed in Hawaii and completed the Marine Corps Marathon on a hand bike.
While he was in Washington, D.C., for that marathon, he stopped by the Bethesda military hospital to see and thank the people who had cared for him. He ended up with another amputee friend counseling a soldier who had just lost his legs.
“I was just returning the favor that someone did for me,” Briseno said. “If I could, I would give the man who spoke with me a big, big thank you. That really did change everything.”
That visit and the work of Hope For The Warriors and other organizations left an indelible impression.
“It’s amazing to have people like that who dedicate their time for us,” Briseno said. “I’m no different from any other Marine who goes out there and does the job. I don’t put myself any higher or any lower. I just had an unfortunate accident.”
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