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Special Decoration

Soldier survives blasts, earns Purple Heart

The Palestine Herald-Press
By Mary Rainwater
12.03.06

A year ago today Palestine Regional Medical Center employee and local resident J.R. Hahn gave his daughter, Jamie, away. He could not be more proud of his new son-in-law Sgt. Brian Fleming, a soldier in the U.S. Army.

Just three months into the marriage in March 2006, Sgt. Fleming was deployed to Afghanistan in with the 10th Mountain Division infantry as a scout team leader.

Four months later, on July 24, Hahn got the call every soldier's family member dreads ‹ Brian had been injured and was being transported to San Antonio for treatment.

"My daughter just told me what they told her," he recalled. "There was an explosion and they were transporting him to San Antonio."

Sgt. Fleming, 22, was on a routine patrol in Kandahar, when a suicide bomber attacked his Humvee.

"I was in the front passenger seat when a man in a van pulled up next to us and blew up the van," Sgt. Fleming said in a telephone interview last week. "I don't really remember what happened. I just woke up on the side of the road and had been burned pretty bad."

From the white phosphorus explosive device, Fleming suffered second and third degree burns on his hands, face and neck. He was transported from the scene to the nearest hospital in Germany, then stabilized and sent on to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

His wife, Jamie, joined him in San Antonio, making a temporary home at Fort Sam Houston's Fisher House, one of 35 nationwide comfort homes that provide military families a place to stay while loved ones are undergoing medical treatment.

"I had reconstructive surgery and skin grafts. Skin from my thighs was grafted onto my hands," Sgt. Fleming said. "I spent two weeks in the hospital, then went to rehab three days a week.

"I couldn't even make a fist at first," Fleming added. "I have been here four months and am now undergoing outpatient therapy."

Due to the nature of his injuries Fleming will not return to the front he said. He is currently wearing compression gloves to help heal his hands.

"I am doing simple tasks," he said. "But my main focus is getting well, going to my appointments, etc."

With about eights month left in active duty, Fleming has been re-stationed at nearby Ft. Sam Houston where he continues his recovery and complete his service with the Army.

The blast in July was not Sgt. Fleming's first, he said. On April 18 Fleming's vehicle ran over an anti-tank mine and he, amazingly, walked away from the scene unharmed.

"When I got back, I got an e-mail from my mom in New York, who told me that on the way to the store one day she had an odd feeling that she needed to pray for me," Fleming said. "It turned out to be the same time on the same day. That really amazed me."

Everything that has happened to Sgt. Fleming for him has been a crazy string of coincidences, from his mother's Godly premonition to his life before he even left for overseas duty.

"I had a book published about two months before I was deployed called ŒA Life Worth Living'’" he said. "It is about living the life God wants us to live."

The book, Fleming said, resulted from going through one of the lowest points of his life. He started writing down the things God was showing him and eventually turned those writings into a book.

"Some of the things I wrote about, I can see now how they are connected to everything that happened to me in Afghanistan," Sgt. Fleming said. "From surviving two blasts and avoiding gunfire so close I could hear it whiz by my ear."

Fleming now shares his story of war in churches all over the nation, and uses his book and his experiences as a soldier to help others like himself.

"I know God has a plan for this," he said. "I have been able to help so many people, and I know more good is going to come from this.

"It is so crazy and amazing ‹ I just can't explain it."

After his tour of duty ends, Fleming plans to attend college and study counseling and psychology. Right now, he is just thankful to be alive and breathing.

"I am very proud of my son-in-law," Hahn said. "I really think that the most important thing we can do for our soldiers is pray for them.

"They are doing a job that the rest of us take for granted."

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