Military veteran asked: ‘What Did They Sew You Up With?’

Private Volpe found out the hard way that a Purple Heart takes a long time to heal.
By Andrew Murr, Newsweek

March 20, 2006 issue – Marine Pvt. Paul Volpe was “bleeding out,” the combat term for bleeding to death. Hit three timesin the arm, calf and thighwith AK-47 rounds in an ambush, he was barely conscious as a corpsman pumped him with morphine to kill the pain. (Volpe had heard stories that wounded men didn’t feel the pain at first, but “when people tell you it doesn’t hurt, it hurts,” he recalled.) The morphine made him drowsier still. A corpsman warned him, “If you go to sleep, you’ll never wake up.” He had passed out anyway by the time he reached Cmdr. Richard Jadick’s tent on the outskirts of Fallujah.

Volpe spent only 20 minutes under Jadick’s care, but it was the difference between life and death. By stabilizing Volpe, Jadick ensured that Volpe would get to a hospital, where his wounds were opened, cleaned and doused with water. Theflaps of his muscle and skin wherehe had been badly hit made his thigh look like a gutted animal. “It was all filleted open,” Volpe recalled. A tattoo in Chinese characters that had been on the upper part of his outer thigh now hung inches lower…

He was at Camp Lejeune when his buddies returned from Iraq that February. They were shocked to see that the 160-pound Volpe now weighed 115 pounds. At a memorial service for the men killed in Iraq, Volpe saw Jadick and walked over. “Hello, Commander. Do you remember me?” “Yes. Volpe, of course,” said Jadick. “I just wanted to say thank you, sir.” “No, that’s not necessary,” said Jadick, who mumbled something about doing his job. Volpe left the corps last fall with a permanent disability. But he has bought a Suzuki 600cc motorcycle, and he’s waiting to hear if he got into San Diego State University for the fall.

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