Page 1 - Ft. Huachuca Scout 7-2-15

Vol. 62, No. 26
Published in the interest of Fort Huachuca personnel and their Families. Online @ www.aerotechnews.com/forthuachuca/ or via smartphone.
Signal Soldiers
celebrate regimental
birthday ...
(3A)
Family, faith, focus
Resiliency helps Soldier heal from extensive combat wounds
Story and photos by Natalie Lakosil
Staff Writer
“I remember the day, August 5, for those of you that
have been to Kabul, you know that the air quality isn’t
quite right, but that morning I went on a 5-mile run.
“I remember my boss telling me and looking excited,
he said ‘Jeremy, it’s a great day to be an American! What
have you done for your country today, and before you
open your mouth, drop and give me 10 push ups,’and that
was the kind of guy Major General [Harold] Greene was.
He was filled with humor,” said Maj. Jeremy Haynes,
Warrior Transition Brigade, Walter Reed National Mili-
tary Medical Center, Maryland, to the packed Fitch Audi-
torium at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, June 24.
What Haynes did not know is that would be one of the
last conversations he would have with Greene. Haynes’
life would forever change on that tragic August day. He
had been serving as Greene’s aide for the past six months
when Greene’s life abruptly ended.
Haynes opened up to the audience for the first time in
an open venue about what took place Aug. 5, 2014. After
going to breakfast with Greene and gaining some sound
life advice regarding working on his marriage with his
wife Chelsea, Haynes called her to tell her he would be
working late that day and that he loved her.
During the mission that day, the group made an un-
expected stop for a briefing. While congregating, the
situation went awry, leading the group to quickly want
to vacate the area. While Haynes was telling the security
detachment he and Greene were leaving, he heard shots
ring out from over his shoulder.
“I looked over my shoulder, grabbed my sidearm and
I noticed there were snipers on the roof. They were look-
ing down at us, and I’m seeing bodies drop,” Haynes told
the crowd. “And at that moment I’m looking at my boss,
Major General Greene, and I immediately start running
towards his direction and that’s when tragically I fell. I Soldiers in Alvarado Hall, Fort Huachuca, Arizona, June 24.
was shot,” Haynes said.
“At that time, I didn’t know I was shot four times. I
remember falling down and looking up at him. He was
still running towards me and there was a point when I
saw him fall,” Haynes said. “And it felt as if someone had
a dimmer and was trying to turn off the lights, and I was
trying really, really hard to open my eyes. I remember in-
dividuals walking up behind me and looking down on me
and one individual saying ‘hey, he may not make it. Let’s
go on to someone else.’”
Haynes was not able to speak or move. He saw blood
CG takes center stage
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(8A)
and, initially believing he had been shot in the head,
started to think he might not make it. “At that moment I
thought about my wife who was three months pregnant
at the time and how I had wasted three weeks on arguing
with her.”
When Haynes regained consciousness some time after
the shooting, he realized he was alone. At some point, the
officer in charge also noticed Haynes’ absence and sent
men to retrieve him.
“I remember the first medic rolling me over and say-
ing, ‘are you alive’ and with every breath inside me I said,
‘I am alive. Get me out of here. I can’t feel anything.”’
The doctors initially told Haynes he had one bullet
wound but, while searching him, found three more. “I
was on my stomach and they rolled me over, and I looked
down at my leg and my leg was basically severed. I’m
seeing bone protruding out of my skin and blood just ev-
erywhere … not knowing I was also shot in the shoulder.
I was shot in the left leg which came out of the left hip,
my tibial fibula was basically shattered — torn to pieces
— and I was shot in the spine which penetrated and sev-
ered my vena cava,” he said.
All the while, Haynes’s wife Chelsea, who is a reserv-
ist in the Army, was wondering how long his mission was
going to take.
“I was at work and I’m thinking it’s taking a long time
to hear back from him, she said. “Then I thought well,
maybe he’s just working hard and continued on with my
day. Then I got a phone call and was told he’s shot and I
was keeping my composure through the phone call but
after it I was just bawling to myself. Even though they
said he’s only shot once, you never really know.”
After a few hours Chelsea realized she had to go pick
up their two children.
Maj. Gen. Robert Ashley, commanding general, U.S. Army
Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, talks to
Ashley shared his amazement with how Maj. Jeremy Haynes,
Warrior Transition Brigade, Walter Reed National Military Medical
Center, Maryland, overcame injuries sustained while serving in
Afghanistan last August.
July 2, 2015
Irwin Pool offers
Family-friendly fun
this summer ...
(1B)
Maj. Jeremy Haynes, Warrior Transition Brigade, Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center, Maryland, and wife Chelsea
speak with Capt. Kate Degategno, Alpha Company, 304th Military
Intelligence Battalion, in Alvarado Hall, Fort Huachuca, Arizona,
June 24.
“I decided no matter what the road was going to be
they needed to continue to have that normalcy because
they are so young,” she said. At the time their children
were 2 and 3.
“I’ve never talked about this before,” Chelsea told the
Soldiers, taking a brief moment to breathe. The next day
she would find out the full extent of her husband’s injuries.
“At that moment I had to make a decision, and they
did tell me that he may or may not walk again,” she said.
“You don’t know how much strength you have to gather
to be by their side. You hear all the horror stories about
spouses who have left because of injuries, so I made a
promise to myself that I would be there by his side no
matter what.”
Haynes awoke a few days later in the intensive care
unit in Germany.
“That moment proved to be the beginning of a long
journey,” he said. “A journey where I was told you’ll
never walk again, you’ll never have feeling below your
hips, there’s a two percent chance you’ll ever survive; but
also having that same doctor walk out, take off his white
coat, come back in and say, ‘Through faith all things are
possible. You just have to believe in yourself and you can
do it. And I took those concepts with me throughout this
long journey.”
The Soldier would have a long recovery ahead of him
but after months of being in the hospital and physical
therapy, Haynes finally took his first steps in November.
Haynes attributes his strength during the last 10 months
to his Family, faith and focus.
“I’ve had my moments where I’ve wanted to give up,”
Haynes told the crowd. “I’ve had my moments where I
See RESILIENCY, Page 5A