Matthew Palacios: Picking Up the Little Pieces
He saved lives by intercepting a live grenade, and took shrapnel for his
trouble. Recovery has been bumpy, but this Marine is ready for action.
By Martha Brant
Newsweek
March 20, 2006 issue - Cpl. Matthew Palacios, the wounded Marine who saved
his comrades by hurling away a live grenade, is still pulling out the pieces
of shrapnel. Usually an eighth of an inch in diameter, the grenade fragments
are easier to leave in his body than remove. But over time, the shards eject
themselves, pushing their way up through his skin. Palacios can feel them
surfacing, usually on his right side, where he took the brunt of the blast.
One was working its way out of his calf as he spoke to NEWSWEEK, more than a
year after the battle. "I can kind of squeeze it out," he says.
From Jadick's aid station in Fallujah, Palacios, 20, was sent to an Army
hospital in Baghdad, Balad Air Base in northern Iraq, Ramstein Air Base in
Germany and then to Camp Lejeune, N.C. Finally, after about two weeks, he
was sent home to Lorraine, Ohio, outside Cleveland. But he couldn't get
Fallujah out of his mind. Driving at home in Ohio, he found himself scanning
the roadside, looking for wires on the ground or freshly dug earth. He was
looking for roadside bombs. Sometimes, he would drive down the middle of the
road, straddling the center dividing line, just as he did in Fallujah to
avoid IEDs.
Palacios's arm, wounded by an insurgent's bullet, has recovered. He can do
pull-ups again, but if he lies for too long on his right hip his whole side
will fall asleep, tingling and stinging. He feels lucky to have made it
home, but maybe a little too lucky. "I feel guilty," he says. He would have
preferred to stay in Iraq and gone immediately into battle after recovering.
Instead, he is eagerly awaiting his next tour of duty, possibly back in
Iraq.
© 2006 MSNBC.com