My husband was killed by a VBIED in 2008. I was 18. I have a lot of questions actually.
This is a letter his medic wrote to me after it happened.
Even though I can not fully understand what you are going through right now I can say that this has not been easy for me either. Jeffery was a wonderful person. Always there to boost our spirits when situations got too hard for us to want to deal with. There was always a smile on his face, which in turn, put a smile on my face as well. He talked about you and Sonny often. Making sure we all knew full well why he was content in doing what we do. He wanted to provide for his family and keep you as safe as possible.
I was Jeffery's medic, and I am writing you to tell you about the events that happened. This is very difficult for me to speak about. That day is constantly running through my mind. No one saw the car bomb coming, and when it did it turned an entire street into a horrible scene you would only expect to see in movies. When I got to your husband he was knocked unconsiences and bleeding badly from the head. After controlling the bleeding and moving him to another vehicle in order to get him to the hospital, I jumped into the vehicle with him. It was then that he began to wake. Although he could not speak he did respond to my voice. Wiggling his fingers as I asked and holding my hand. There was even a time that he reached up and smacked me in the face as he was smirking. Knowing your husband I believe this was fully intentional. I spent the rest of the ride holding his hand and speaking to him reassuringly. As I did so he seemed to calm as if he took comfort in this, and I believe he did. There were this last conscience moments. After reaching the hospital and sedating him. While they flew him to surgery. As you know he did not make it out of surgery. I want you to know that I did everything I could for him, but the injuries had been too great. We are all devastated by this loss.
I know I did not go into much detail about the scene, but this is because I feel it might be too upsetting for you. It haunts my dreams nightly. If there is any other questions you may have, or if there is anything my wife and I can do for you please don't hesitate to ask. If you choose you can write me back, I am at the same address Jeffery was. You and your son are in my prayers and I am truly sorry I was unable to do more.
Spc. Peterson
I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time back in May of this year. He was still very affected by the incident and said he couldn't live another day until we spoke.
When I received the report there was so much information blocked out. It all said "classified" or "sensitive". I never got the full story about what happened.
So my questions are:
1. How does a normal VBIED work? I was told two people were caught that did it, but they were released to their government and killed for their crimes. Which leads me to:
Why didn't the US punish these people for the death of my husband?
There were 4 vehicles in the convoy. They moved him to the last one, least damaged. I assume they tried to treat him on the way to a helicopter. From what I understand, he was awake up until he got on the helicopter, but I have had mixed stories about if he died in the helicopter or on the operating table.
what is the procedure when there are head injuries overseas?
what sort of hospital are they transported to?
why does this sort of thing affect the other troops so much, and is there anyway I can help them? A lot of the troops didn't want to talk to me after his death because my husband had told them all I was cheating on him. It wasn't true at all, but most of them refused to believe me. The few that did believe me knew that my husband was a bit of a drama queen and lied a lot. I have spoken to about 3 people involved in the incident. One is our son's godfather.
Should I leave the rest of those people alone? I see posts on their Facebook pages about my husband often, so I know they are always thinking about him. I wonder if I can help them cope in any way. I had nightmares for years about the incident and still have dreams that its all some crazy cover up and he is going to come home one day. My son has nightmares about it too but not as frequent as he use to.
Should I seek help for my son? His grandmother (my mother in law, who I love dearly) told him the details about what happened. He was about 4 years old when she told him. I was furious but couldn't do anything to change it. Earlier this year he asked me "When is Daddy coming back from Heaven?". I had to explain that heaven isn't a place you come back from. He has recently stopped drawing graphic pictures of what he imagined had happened.
Still have a lot of questions, but I will leave you with those for now.
Thank you.
EDIT: sorry, I seriously have no idea how to make paragraphs on this website.
helicopterwindow17 karma
My husband was killed by a VBIED in 2008. I was 18. I have a lot of questions actually. This is a letter his medic wrote to me after it happened.
Even though I can not fully understand what you are going through right now I can say that this has not been easy for me either. Jeffery was a wonderful person. Always there to boost our spirits when situations got too hard for us to want to deal with. There was always a smile on his face, which in turn, put a smile on my face as well. He talked about you and Sonny often. Making sure we all knew full well why he was content in doing what we do. He wanted to provide for his family and keep you as safe as possible. I was Jeffery's medic, and I am writing you to tell you about the events that happened. This is very difficult for me to speak about. That day is constantly running through my mind. No one saw the car bomb coming, and when it did it turned an entire street into a horrible scene you would only expect to see in movies. When I got to your husband he was knocked unconsiences and bleeding badly from the head. After controlling the bleeding and moving him to another vehicle in order to get him to the hospital, I jumped into the vehicle with him. It was then that he began to wake. Although he could not speak he did respond to my voice. Wiggling his fingers as I asked and holding my hand. There was even a time that he reached up and smacked me in the face as he was smirking. Knowing your husband I believe this was fully intentional. I spent the rest of the ride holding his hand and speaking to him reassuringly. As I did so he seemed to calm as if he took comfort in this, and I believe he did. There were this last conscience moments. After reaching the hospital and sedating him. While they flew him to surgery. As you know he did not make it out of surgery. I want you to know that I did everything I could for him, but the injuries had been too great. We are all devastated by this loss. I know I did not go into much detail about the scene, but this is because I feel it might be too upsetting for you. It haunts my dreams nightly. If there is any other questions you may have, or if there is anything my wife and I can do for you please don't hesitate to ask. If you choose you can write me back, I am at the same address Jeffery was. You and your son are in my prayers and I am truly sorry I was unable to do more. Spc. Peterson
I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time back in May of this year. He was still very affected by the incident and said he couldn't live another day until we spoke. When I received the report there was so much information blocked out. It all said "classified" or "sensitive". I never got the full story about what happened.
So my questions are: 1. How does a normal VBIED work? I was told two people were caught that did it, but they were released to their government and killed for their crimes. Which leads me to:
Why didn't the US punish these people for the death of my husband? There were 4 vehicles in the convoy. They moved him to the last one, least damaged. I assume they tried to treat him on the way to a helicopter. From what I understand, he was awake up until he got on the helicopter, but I have had mixed stories about if he died in the helicopter or on the operating table.
what is the procedure when there are head injuries overseas?
what sort of hospital are they transported to?
why does this sort of thing affect the other troops so much, and is there anyway I can help them? A lot of the troops didn't want to talk to me after his death because my husband had told them all I was cheating on him. It wasn't true at all, but most of them refused to believe me. The few that did believe me knew that my husband was a bit of a drama queen and lied a lot. I have spoken to about 3 people involved in the incident. One is our son's godfather.
Should I leave the rest of those people alone? I see posts on their Facebook pages about my husband often, so I know they are always thinking about him. I wonder if I can help them cope in any way. I had nightmares for years about the incident and still have dreams that its all some crazy cover up and he is going to come home one day. My son has nightmares about it too but not as frequent as he use to.
Should I seek help for my son? His grandmother (my mother in law, who I love dearly) told him the details about what happened. He was about 4 years old when she told him. I was furious but couldn't do anything to change it. Earlier this year he asked me "When is Daddy coming back from Heaven?". I had to explain that heaven isn't a place you come back from. He has recently stopped drawing graphic pictures of what he imagined had happened.
Still have a lot of questions, but I will leave you with those for now. Thank you.
EDIT: sorry, I seriously have no idea how to make paragraphs on this website.
EDIT 2: Because someone told me to enter twice...
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