Originally published in The Augusta Chronicle, June 23, 2004.
Jun. 23–For Petty Officer 1st Class Lindon Haworth, rehabilitation has been a long journey — from a mortar attack in Iraq back home to an Augusta Veterans Affairs hospital.
With a Bible in his left hand, the naval reservist sits in his room at the VA’s Uptown Division and offers his right hand to shake with a visitor.
Months ago, he couldn’t use that arm much, and he said he might have lost his right leg.
Petty Officer 1st Class Haworth, a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy in peacetime, was injured in April during an attack that killed several members of his unit.
He is now one of 12 actively serving military personnel who are rehabilitating at the Augusta Veterans Affairs’ new Active Duty Rehab Care Unit.
Officials from the VA and the Army joined veterans in celebrating the opening Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a tour of the facilities.
The 60-bed unit is the first of its kind in the VA system, said Jim Trusley III, the director of the Augusta VA hospitals.
“This is a significant event in the life of the VA,” he said.
The rehab unit is a part of a national joint effort between the VA and the Defense Department to smooth the transition of service members between the two agencies.
The effort started as new combat veterans from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq returned home from those conflicts.
Locally, the VA — which has provided neurology services to active-duty service members — is working with the Southeast Region Medical Command, based at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center.
“The unique cooperation is tangible evidence that we have a sustained concern for your care,” Brig. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the commander of Eisenhower and the Southeast Region Medical Command, said to the active-duty service members being treated at the facility.
VA officials also recognized the unit’s director, Dr. Rose Trincher, who also heads up the Augusta VA’s spinal cord injury center, for her work in helping create the unit.
“I love my patients,” she said. “I love what I do, and I’m more than glad to do this job.”
Some of the unit’s patients said they’re also glad to be at the new facility but still would like to get back home.
Pfc. James Ford, 19, of Jackson, Miss., lost his left leg below the knee after a car accident. He has been at the VA since February and is recovering, using a prosthesis.
“At times, I don’t want to be here, but then I have to say, ‘I’m getting help, and I have to stay here until they can say I can leave,'” he said. “But I feel good about it, that I’m getting help.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Haworth, who has been honored with the Purple Heart, said he’s lucky, and he credits his faith for the fact he’s still alive.
“The blast alone, just the blast pressure, could have torn both of my legs off,” he said. “But I still have both of them.
“God had answered my simple prayer.”