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Blood Brothers: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57

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With great insight and compassion, Michael Weisskopf brings us the stories of the amputees of this generation's wars. Weisskopf himself lost his dominant hand while embedded with soldiers in Iraq in preparation for Time's 2003 Person of the Year edition. He picked up a grenade that landed in his vehicle and awoke to a whole new life: Ward 57 of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

But while Weisskopf weaves himself throughout Blood Brothers, describing his his own healing and attempts to regain his journalistic "objectivity," he is not the central figure. Instead, he vividly paints the portraits of three fellow-travelers in Ward 57, soldiers who must come to terms with the physical and psychological impacts of losing a limb. In powerful but matter-of-fact, news-like prose, the reader is introduced to Before and After, and taken along for the gut-wrenching journey in between as wounded warriors (along with their loved ones and care-givers) tackle the mountain that is physical and psychological recovery from amputation.

Blood Brothers is the kind of book that will put you through the emotional wringer, but you won't want to put down. You'll laugh when the wounded-but-fiery Army sergeant and the Marine physical therapist get into a verbal pissing match, and cry when you read of heroic medics or the pain of the residents of Ward 57; other times you'll want to throw something against the wall as you see a need that isn't addressed or stand up and cheer when a physical milestone is reached.

It's all there: the horror and the beauty, the heights and the depths, the illusory achievements and the real milestones. Due to a reportorial style that essentially allows them to speak for themselves, the soldiers in Blood Brothers stand on the page in all their glory and humility, strength and weakness. The reader sees the darkest days and the moments of hope, the times when the path of healing is clear, and the times there seems no possible future.

"Blood Brothers" is heart-wrenching and beautiful book, a must-read for every severely-injured warfighter and family, every volunteer and employee serving in a military hospital, or any other person who wants to better understand the challenges and recovery process of those who go to war but are not lucky enough to come back in one piece.

I read this book over the course of one weekend, it was that good. The book gets to the heart of what our severely wounded veterans face from the exact time of the injury on the battlefield to the care they receive in our military hospitals, to their day to day recovery, relationships with their families and how they cope with the loss of not only a limb but in some cases, their whole identity. This book made me realize how much they really do lose and sacrifice to defend this country no matter where or when. I have a new appreciation for the true heroes of our day, the men and women of our military, especially the heroes who lose limbs in the line of duty.

When discussing war we are often most interested in how many died in battle. I suppose that this gives us some sense of how ferocious and large the fighting was and how much was sacrificed for the cause. We also discuss the number of casualties. This includes the wounded. The range of wounds is large. Some are completely debilitating, but recoverable long term. Others remove the soldier from the battlefield only temporarily. Some are amputations of limbs or the destruction of organs in the field of battle or lead to amputations in order to save the soldier's life.

Battlefield medicine has improved since the Civil War and especially since Vietnam. The concept of evacuating the wounded quickly and treating them within the "Golden Hour" led to much greater survivability. Now emergency medical personal talk about the platinum ten minutes. This implies that what would have been fatal wounds because of the severity of injury in prior conflicts now allow the soldier to survive, but with severe physical deficits including missing hands, feet, legs, arms, and even severe brain trauma.

Michael Weisskopf is a reporter for Time magazine (not to be confused with Michael Isikoff of Newsweek) who took an assignment embedded with troops in Iraq. On one ride in an open vehicle a smoldering grenade landed in the back of the truck. Weisskopf says he remembers the feeling of his hand being burned as he picked up the grenade and nothing else. He describes what he can recall and what he learned about his evacuation and treatment. Eventually, the Pentagon allowed him to be treated in Ward 57, the special place where the hundreds of amputees from the War on Terror are treated and given rehabilitation treatment.

The author shows a great reticence to talk about himself and is quite honest in wanting to know why he picked up the grenade and if he threw it or dropped it or what. He is quite uncomfortable with the accolades given him and rejects the title of hero. As the book goes along his process of recover also includes him coming to some kind of resolution to this inner turmoil.

Most of the book is given to the stories of a few of those soldier's who went through the process with Weisskopf. Luis Rodriguez, by all accounts a fine leader and medic, lost a leg to a roadside bomb. Bobby Isaacs lost both his to another of those infernal devices. And Peter Damon lost both his arms to a freak accident when a tire from a Black Hawk Helicopter exploded. The shrapnel not only wounded Damon, but killed his friend, Paul Bueche.

We get to know these men and the author thanks to the fine and honest reporting by Weisskopf. He doesn't spare himself one bit and exposes his own lapses and struggles in coming to terms with the lost of his right hand. The issues surrounding phantom pain are far more serious than I had ever imagined. Then there is the idea of re-entering public with a very much different body and how that new self-image and public-image affect the person is well described in this book.

The different ways in which these men were greeted and supported (or not supported) and used and even abused on the road back is also quite different for each man. How they find their own new foundation and what they determine to use in order to find their way back is quite, well, staggering to me. I am sure you will have your own reaction to the book and the men and their choices. However, I am sure you will agree that this book is very much worthwhile. It will certainly inspire some folks, but it should remind all of us that the sacrifices of our soldiers do not end at the cemetery gate. There are many of the wounded who are now disabled and need our help. There are thousands more who don't show their wounds on the outside, but still need to be honored and cared for.

We can be proud of the doctors and nurses and others who help these men and women get back to as normal a life as they can, but we must not shirk our responsibilities to these soldiers either. This book is a good place to start in learning about what we need to do.

What a fantastic book. Michael Weisskopf was a journalist who went to Iraq to cover stories from Iraq firsthand, but in a cruel twist of fate became an amputee himself when a grenade went off. He lost his hand and it compelled him to write a book about his ordeal and the challenges that soldiers who are also amputees face after the war.
He went over to Iraq in December 2003 to profile American soldiers (writing for Time). He was travelling in a convoy in the back of an open Humvee when a grenade landed in the back where he was sitting. He instinctivly went to throw it out when it went off. With his right hand he threw it and it felt like a lava rock because it must have exploded just as he picked it up. By throwing the grenade away, he actually saved his life and the lives of those who he was travelling with.
He wound up at Walter Reid army medical center in Washington DC to recover - the only journalist wounded in combat who was given that privilege. Ward 57 is the ward for amputees and now he was sharing time with them recovering. He chronicles his own time recovering and also writes about the struggles of three soldiers also getting over their injuries. He wants us as readers to understand that the fighting doesn't end when you come back home - it can be an ongoing struggle mentally and obviously physically.
It's a fascinating book that should be a must read so we can appreciate what it is that troops are doing for their country and the sacrifices they make to be there. He also talks about his recovery with his family and the impact it had on them and his career. It is a brilliant book that I read in record time (so interesting I couldn't put it down) and I highly highly recommend it.

As an amputee for the past 4 years or so, I know a few things about the story told by this book. But I was unprepared to be as moved as I was. Michael not only tells the story of how, but he digs deeper into the demons that made him and Pete so much more real.

I don't have war experience, I just had a simple accident. The demons these men fight to get to a place where they can accept the things that happened make this a very powerful story. I highly recommend it to anyone. And I've recommended it to several close friends in hopes they might better understand what it's like to loose part of yourself.

Mr. Weisskopf writes a truely remarkable account of what it is like to go from the battle field through the medical, recovery process. As a surgical technician & Vietnam vet I found his story to be inspiring and very moving. The medical aspects were right on the money!!
Thank you, Mr. Weisskopf, for a wonderfully touching story. I hope you have been able to put to rest the "Why & What If" questions. As far as I'm concerned the motivation doesn't matter. You're a HERO!!!

Michael Weisskopf is a well known journalist for TIME magazine. During a trip to Iraq as an embedded journalist with an Army unit, the HMMWV he was riding in had a grenade thrown into it. Weisskopf apparently went to pick the grenade up before it detonated, but was too late, losing his right hand in the explosion.

Weisskopf uses this tragedy to document his and a several soldiers with amputations in their roads to recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Ward 57, the amputee ward. Weisskopf does a good job of capturing the many aspects of recovery that he and the soldiers go through.

This short book captures very well the processes of recovering from combat wounds, dealing with the traumas both to yourself and those around you, including fellow soldiers who did not survive their accidents.

I highly recommend this book.

What Michael Weisskopf has done with this story is truly amazing. It was a very emotional book for me, but it is a book that every American should read.I plan on passing this book around. It is a book that you cannot put down.You just want to cheer these guys on, cry with them, and you feel their frustrations. I would love to meet Michael and the men that he writes about to thank them personally for their sacrifices.
I am a Troop Greeter from Maine where most of the flights that are going over and comming home stop for re-fueling.We are soon to have welcomed 500,000 troops. I often wonder how many that I have met that will not be returning home or have been injured. I say a prayer for them after every flight and pray that they will be comming back through our halls.
I can't thank Michael Weisskopf enough for writing this book. It is truly an excellent book.
cakelady2@adelphia.net

For author and Time magazine senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf, the events of December 10, 2003 changed his life forever. While riding on a humvee with US troops as an embedded reporter in Iraq, Weisskoph sees a dark smoking object land near him, he picks it up and feels hot searing heat burn his handâ*" then everything goes dark.

After initial medical treatment in Iraq and Germany, Weisskoph finds himself on Ward 57--the amputee wing of Walter Reed Medical Center. Now feeling more like a soldier than a reporter, he builds relationships with some extraordinary men:

-- Corporal Robert Isaccs, "Bobby," enlisted on September 17, 2001. "Someone had to stand up for the American way". Bobby is hit by a roadside bomb in Mosel and although his chance of recovery looks grim, heroic medics save him and he pulls through to recover on Ward 57 with a steady stream of amputees.

-- Sargent First Class Luis Rodgriguez, a career military medic, struggles not only with his physical loss, but now his purpose in life.

-- Peter John Damon, the Black Hawk mechanic who thought he was out of harms way, was injured when the metal rim on a Black Hawk tire he was inflating explodes and takes both his hands. Recently engaged, he agonizes that he no longer has a place for his wedding ring.

In his account, Weisskopf is brutally honest about his motive to pick up the grenade. He wonders: Did he know it was a grenade? Did he even throw it...or merely drop it when he felt the heat? People call him a hero, but he has doubts. Like him, his "blood brothers" have to work through the guilt of their individual circumstance and the guilt of survival.

Blood Brothers, a gripping read, is not for the faint of heart. It brings the harsh reality of war into your soul and makes you feel deeply for the sacrifices made.

Armchair Interviews says: Stories of true war heroes.

Michael Weisskopf's true story about his coverage of Iraq during which he comes under fire and loses his hand draws the reader into his life and keeps him there till the last page. The grisly facts and the heroic military men he meets throughout his journey not only shed light on the sad truths of war, but place the reader directly into Michael's shoes. A great read for anyone wanting to know what really happens to soldiers in a contemporary war.