Special to The VOICE, Part 8 of 8
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TO THEIR GREAT COMFORT, BENEFIT, AND APPRECIATION, THE wounded and their families
at Walter Reed were not alone in their recoveries. They were the selfless attention
of countless public luminaries. In the months that followed after he was admitted,
Zac was visited by the Surgeon General of the Army, Minnesota Senator Al Franken,
the parents of the battalion commander, the Boston College hockey team, about fifteen
members of the Houston Astros baseball team, NASCAR champion driver Ryan Newman,
and military personnel of various ranks too numerous for Zac to count.
Indelible bonds conceived in common cause were also forged between the families
of patients. Moms and dads and husbands and wives passed each other in the hallways
and there was a well-attended “smoker’s club.” There was also socializing in the
cafeteria and at the motel and on the shuttles that carried them to and from the
hospital. “You learned about their kids and they learned about yours,” Terry recounts.
Those parents, such as Zac’s, who remained with their sons and daughters (and spouses
for married patients) were in contrast to those who didn’t and at different times
Leanne virtually adopted soldiers who were there without anyone. To her, the most
heartbreaking were those occasions when a spouse would simply leave—often without
warning or explanation—unable to cope with the magnitude of the injuries of their
loved one.
At the same time, Leanne was heartened by the random acts of kindness frequently
shown to her and her son. For instance, one evening they went downstairs to play
Bingo. And although they didn’t bingo that night, “someone [handed them] their card
so [that they] could.” Zac won a funny ball and a cribbage board.
For Zac, the support of his family and friends was unwavering. During a particularly
rough stretch, Bill Lovlien, Zac’s Little League coach from Maple Valley, pushed
him never to let up. “Keep him in the fight,” he pressed Leanne. “I know they have
to do meds to a point and the little [Hobart] Hornet wants a Marlboro, but he has
to fight this with his own adrenaline and testosterone. Self-made not added.” Speaking
directly to Zac, he exhorted his former player: “You must continue to kick ass.
All day every day. You can defeat this Zac; your attitude will do more for you than
anything the docs can give you. Fight, fight, fight. We never stop kid.”
Even with the magnitude of his own injuries, Zac came to feel deep empathy for the
welfare of others, fellow soldier-patients some of whom he considered to be in much
worse condition than himself. Still uncertain if he would lose his own arm and referring
to many of the multiple amputees with whom he was coming into daily contact, Zac
related to his father that “he could live with it if he lost one limb, but to lose
two, [in that case] he didn’t know what he would do.” His son’s words filled Terry
with perspective: “Seeing all those soldiers at Walter Reed and the severity of
their injuries, I prayed and thanked God that Zac is in as good of shape as he is.”
As months of treatment grew into a full year and beyond, there were experiences
never to be forgotten. On November 12, Zac participated in Occupational Therapy
in the morning. Then, with his mom, they visited the Recreation Room where they
shot pool. “Zac does really well one-handed and with one eye,” Leanne quipped. But
that was just the start. With Leanne at his side and with Zac riding in his electric
wheelchair, together they proceeded to “walk all over the base,” after which they
went out for lunch. But they weren’t done. After finishing their meal, Zac “decided
he wanted to throw some hoops,” so they headed over to the gymnasium. As Leanne
recorded the event on her Facebook page, “Well he can’t chase the ball so I DID!!!”
Leanne boasted that she won two games of H-O-R-S-E and Zac one game of P-I-G. Commented
Leanne at the conclusion of a most extraordinary day: It is the “ONLY time I will
ever win at basketball!!!”
November 19 was a breakthrough day. Leanne had needed to sign a new rental car agreement
at a local dealership located about seven miles from Walter Reed, but when she returned
to Mologne House where Zac was staying as an outpatient, she found “No Zac!!!” Alarmed
and worried what might have happened, Leanne searched “in the courtyard, the gym,
[at the] mailboxes & nope,” no sign of him. In his room, his appointment book and
medications were all there as he had left them. Knowing that Zac had a meeting with
the command master sergeant scheduled to begin in about forty-five minutes, Leanne
decided to walk to the hospital. To her immense relief, whom did she see when she
got there? “YEP, Zac was there waiting,” having “walked there no chair!!!” That
evening, Leanne was brimming with pride. His “leg was tired at the end of the day,”
she exclaimed, but “HE DID IT!!!”
An indication of Zac’s improving condition was manifested in his ability to fly
to Italy for a reunion that the Army sponsored and arranged for all five soldiers
who had been inside Zac’s MRAP at Shekhabad village. Zac and Leanne had been notified
of such a possibility in early October and the event was announced to take place
the first week of December 2010. But it could happen only if and when the pressure
in Zac’s eye had reached a point that his ophthalmologists would sign off on the
trip. Zac was still in line for a cornea transplant, but a date for that had not
been set and the surgery remained months in the future.
But as it turned out, the readings taken of Zac’s eye improved sufficiently so that
he was cleared to fly. He and Leanne left Washington, DC with a stopover in Germany
and then they continued on to Venice. Leanne wrote that Zac “smiled” when he saw
SSG Tyler Gerk, although a surprise was in store for them. Zac’s aunt, Colonel Laura
Ludwig, greeted them there as well.
When Leanne was introduced to SSG Gerk, she “hugged him and thanked him for saving
her son’s life.” Deflecting attention off himself, he responded: “I was just doing
my job.”
During his three-day stay in Italy, Zac received his Purple Heart award for the
injuries he had suffered and the Army Achievement Medal for the heroism he displayed
and his meritorious conduct in the line of duty. He was also awarded the Combat
Action Badge and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal. The ceremony was held at the base
in Vicenza from which, two years earlier, he had deployed to Afghanistan.
“Zac is spending his last night with his buddies,” Leanne wrote before they returned
stateside. “Every single one of his guys was excited to see him.”
Back in the nation’s capital in mid-February 2011, Zac and his mom were privileged
to meet a most special visitor. Zac had been temporarily transferred to Bethesda
Naval Hospital in Maryland where he was scheduled to undergo reconstructive surgery
on his left arm. After he had been there for nearly a week, Leanne was sitting in
the waiting room located just outside Zac’s room when she looked outside the window
and happened to notice a helicopter landing. The fact that it was not a medevac
aroused her interest. So she Googled its image on her computer and discovered that
it was the helicopter of the president of the United States.
Leanne thought little more about it and everything proceeded normally enough until
that afternoon when she and Zac were asked if they might like to participate in
the walkthrough of a very important government official, although they weren’t told
who it was. Zac responded, “Sure,” unaware that his mom had seen the president’s
helicopter that morning. Later that day, in preparation for the forthcoming visit,
Zac was moved to the Wounded Warrior Amputee Wing on the other side of the floor
he was on.
The next morning, Leanne arrived at Bethesda at nine o’clock and a half hour later,
all visitors were “briefed on what they could and could not do,” which meant that
all TVs, computers, and iPods had to be turned off and everyone had to get into
protective clothing. At ten o’clock, guests were escorted to the area outside the
elevators at that end of the hospital so that Secret Service personnel with their
dogs could clear each soldier’s room. Lastly, “all visitors were checked by name”
against the soldier they were with and they were wanded “for clearance onto the
wing.” As Leanne remembers, hospital personnel were the first to be okayed, although
two “were turned away and asked to come back after the special visitor had left
as they were not on the list.”
For the next three hours, Zac and Leanne talked in his room until about one o’clock,
when their wait was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was President Barack
Obama accompanied by his photographer. Entering the room, the president too put
on protective clothing. He then shook hands with Zac and Leanne.
Above all else, President Obama wanted an answer to one question. “Are you being
taken care of?” he asked. Zac and Leanne responded in the affirmative.
“Is there anything you don’t like about [Washington] DC?” the president queried
them next. Leanne responded that she found the snowstorms that virtually shut down
the city annoying and surprising. In reply, President Obama said that he felt that
way as well, although he said that his daughters on the other hand “loved it” since
they were accustomed to Chicago where they didn’t have snow days for school.
After chatting with Zac and Leanne for a few more minutes, the president thanked
Zac “For his service to our country,” telling him that he was “a courageous” soldier.
Turning to Leanne, President Obama added: “Mom, you did a great job raising such
a brave young man,” a compliment which brought a smile to Leanne’s face.
Informing them that he had a lot of other soldiers to see, the president asked Zac
and Leanne “if they would join him for a picture.” Once that was taken, he thanked
them and left the room.
After the passage of another two hours and after the president had completed his
tour of the hospital, Zac was boarded onto an ambulance and returned to Walter Reed.
“What a day!!!” Leanne wrote, summarizing their meeting with the president.
Another event had been in the planning stages for as long as half a year. Zac’s
intense interest in baseball had raised the possibility of his home-team Minnesota
Twins honoring him during one of their games. That finally came to fruition as part
of Armed Services Appreciation Day, which is held each year over the Fourth of July
weekend at Target Field in Minneapolis. On July 3, 2011, all of Zac’s family gathered
at centerfield for the pregame ceremony during which the crowd was brought to its
feet and a rousing ovation was given when Zac’s sister, fellow soldier and Army
Specialist Tori Blaisdell, stepped forward and pinned his Purple Heart award on
the left breast of her brother’s uniform.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Tori commented: “For everything he’s done and
the fact that he still has a good morale and everything, it’s impressive and amazing.”
It was a tribute held on a field that growing up Zac might have imagined himself
playing on a thousand times. Now he was there under circumstances that he never
could have predicted. But none of that mattered anymore. At this point, all that
was important was that he was there, and with a presence and standing that exceeded
that of even his boyhood heroes on the diamond.
Remarked the former starting pitcher for the Hobart Hornets: “It was just a great
day.” And, in ways filled with meaning and insight beyond what Zac may have intended,
it was.
Pictured above: Zac, Barack Obama, and Leanne pose for a picture during the president's
visit to meet with wounded soldiers at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland in February
2011.
Colonel Laura Ludwig poses with her nephew, Zac Blaisdell, in Italy where they gathered
for a reunion of the soldiers who were in Zac's MRAP in Afghanistan. While he was
in Italy, Zac was presented with three medals for valor as well as the Purple Heart
award for the injuries he sustained.
Five American warriors and heroes reunited in Italy: SSG Tyler Gerk, SPC Rudolf
Schultz, SPC Zacery Blaisdell, SSG Matthew Young, and SSG James Smith.
One of the most unforgettable days of Zac's recovery. He and his mom spent a day
together exploring the vast Walter Reed complex, which included playing basketball
at the gymnasium.
July 3, 2011, Target Field in Minneapolis: Before a Twins game and surrounded by
family, Specialist Tori Blaisdell pins the Purple Heart award on her younger brother's
uniform.
