Courtesy Photo | Army Sgt. Maj. Michael L. Van Engen, with the 1-501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - Sgt. Maj. Michael L. Van Engen, operations sergeant major with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, and 28-year veteran with several combat deployments, sat down recently to share his story about his combat injury and his long road to recovery.
It was just after lunch on a clear summer day June 1, 2012, at 1:00 p.m. Van Engen was escorting an Afghan Army VIP, who was fielding some important equipment for the fight against insurgency when the initial explosion struck.
A vehicle-born improvised explosive device (VBIED) carrying approximately 1,500 pounds of explosives detonated, breaching the exterior perimeter barrier of Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province, Afghanistan. A large mushroom overshadowed. Soon thereafter rubble started raining down on Van Engen and everyone around.
Moments later, a white van approached the blast site. Ten insurgents dismounted and entered the base loaded with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests.
Van Engen said he could hear a lot of gunfire after the explosion, so the first thing he did was make sure the VIP was safe.
After he took care of the VIP, his main responsibility was the 1-501’s Tactical Operations Center TOC, which is where he went next.
“The pressure from the explosion caved in several of the doors, and it caved in my office,” said Van Engen.
He said he checked to make sure everyone in the TOC was okay, and they were. He went on to other buildings where he found several soldiers disoriented and confused. He instructed them to get organized and then went back to the TOC to gather his fighting gear. Then he moved out in the direction of the firefight.
Getting very close to the fight, Van Engen observed Spc. Paul Hedge, an infantryman with the 1-501st, lying on the ground.
Hedge had been shot through his legs and was bleeding.
Recruiting the help of some soldiers in the immediate area, Van Engen directed for Hedge to be moved to safety and medical treatment.
Van Engen said Hedge is still in the Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, fighting to keep his legs.
Van Engen continued to move toward the fight with the help of Spc. Gino Hinojosa, another Paratrooper with the 1-501st who pulled security for Van Engen with a squad automatic weapon machine gun.
Van Engen saw several dead insurgents lying on the road with rocket-propelled grenade weapons at their side. The insurgents were wearing Afghanistan military uniforms and had suicide vests strapped on, which made them appear very large.
“They looked very big. They looked pregnant because they had their suicide vests on, but they were all lying dead on the road,” he said.
When he realized they were strapped with explosives, he started to move back.
It was then he came under the enemy’s fire and was struck by a bullet in his foot.
“I was already moving, I just guess I wasn’t moving fast enough. I looked down because I realized the bullets were coming in from below me, not from above … I didn’t see the bullet, but I saw my foot explode,” he said. “I put weight on it one time, and I fell down. … As I fell down bullets just came flying everywhere. They hit me in the arm - hit me in the body a couple times. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to fight back, so I jumped, and jumped, and jumped, and got behind Spc. Hinojosa.”
Using his SAW, Hinojosa shot and killed the enemy combatant insurgent.
“What I just recently found out was Hinojosa was shot also. I think he got a ricochet in the leg,” said Van Engen.
Hinojosa had been shot while moving to his fighting position to pull security for Van Engen.
“They dragged me off. They did not drag him back. He stayed and fought … pretty amazing,” said Van Engen. “That guy is a great American. He’s got a bullet in his leg right now.”
Van Engen was transported to the Salerno’s base hospital on a large all-terrain vehicle, which stopped several times on the way to pick up more casualties.
“There were a lot of casualties in the hospital,” said Van Engen.
At that time, the fight was still going on. In addition to the ground fire, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters came in and began firing down on enemy insurgents.
Van Engen said it took about 15 to 20 minutes for all of the insurgents to be killed, and the whole base was on high alert for many hours after the attack.
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters began evacuating the wounded people out of FOB Salerno to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.
Van Engen was flown to Bagram where medical staff performed surgery on him immediately to clean out his wounds and stop the bleeding.
Van Engen had been shot several times. The most severe injury was his foot. He was also hit in the arm by a bullet which required medical treatment, and the rest of the bullets impacted his body armor and gear.
While at Bagram, Van Engen called home to tell his wife what happened.
She had been notified he was hurt in some way, but that was all she knew before he called.
“With a big lump in my throat, I told her I was coming home. That was the first time I ever had to do that, so I felt bad and disappointed in myself. It just felt terrible,” said Van Engen.
Van Engen stayed at Bagram that evening. The next day he was flown out of Afghanistan to Germany, where he was treated at a hospital for several days.
He said there were a lot of casualties at the hospital in Germany. They were from different armed services and were coming in from all across the theater of operations.
“I was there for three days, and I had three different roommates during that period of time.”
“There were Marines and guys from other units who I didn’t know. … A Marine officer was there. There was a private first class from the Helmand province in Afghanistan. They were from all over.”
“You just can’t get used to these guys who get hit by IEDs,” he said. “They get hurt pretty bad.”
Continuing with his travel and recovery process, Van Engen’s next stop was Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Van Engen was at Walter Reed for about three weeks. His wife was there when he arrived. Two days later, his parents came to visit him.
Doctors at Walter Reed performed all of his major surgeries. They used an aluminum frame to attach stainless steel rods which ran through his foot and toes to stabilize the bones. There were several pins in his heel which helped to further stabilize his foot.
Van Engen said he is very happy with the medical treatment he has received.
“Walter Reed is a great hospital. The doctors are phenomenal. What they did really helped. They treat you really well. I liked it. … It felt like I had my own personal doctor there,” he said.
Van Engen’s next transition point was Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state.
His last travel leg was back to Alaska where he has continued his recovery with a few subsequent surgeries and physical therapy rehabilitation.
Medical professionals with the 673d Medical Group Hospital and the 725th Brigade Support Battalion Medical Facility at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have been providing continuing treatment and therapy.
During a two-month span, he underwent further surgeries to clean out his wounds and remove the frame and pins from his foot.
Along with removing the frame, doctors took a patch of skin from his upper leg to use as a skin graph to cover the holes left by the rods and pins.
“I got a big red square where they sewed it on my foot. It looks like mesh,” said Van Engen.
It took 30 days before he was able to walk after his last surgery, and then another 30 days before he could put a boot on.
“The hard part is all of the scar tissue from your ankle not moving for three months, and the rods going through the bones,” said Van Engen.
All of the hardware has been removed from his foot, and the bones that run through his foot have consolidated into one clump. The consolidation has left him with no flexibility in his foot.
He used a self administered ultrasonic treatment three times a day.
The device, which is approximately the size of a hockey puck, is used to send sound waves into the foot to help vibrate the bones together.
A large part of his recovery is physical therapy which he goes to twice a week.
Van Engen said his wife and two children have given him a lot of support. He said their support has meant a lot to him and has made a big difference.
“My marriage is much better now. My wife, she came to Walter Reed. She took care of me, hand and foot. She showed how much she really cared for me,” he said.
Van Engen is 47 years old and has served in the Army for 28 years. He has multiple deployments to include Desert Storm, Kosovo, two Iraq deployments, and two tours in Afghanistan.
“I’ve spent, you know, two and a half decades in the Army without being hurt, and now that I am hurt, I can’t do a lot of the things that the young soldiers do. It does make me feel guilty. It makes me sleep a little different I think,” he said.
He said he used to run about 15 miles per week, but now he can’t do any running, so he uses machines like elliptical trainers and walks a lot with his dog.
Van Engen, who learned about Army medical research programs while he was at Walter Reed, volunteered to participate in a study for traumatic brain injury. He is a test subject of a soldier without TBI. He has flown out to Walter Reed once so far in support of the research project and is scheduled to go through a series of tests and examinations over the next five years to complete the study.
For now, though, Van Engen remains cautiously optimistic with respect to his ongoing foot recovery.
“My goal is within a year, to try to be better … Every time I see the podiatrist, he looks at my foot and he just doesn’t know what to do with it to make it any better.”
Even with the challenges he faces, Van Engen remains focused.
“It’s like with anything else, if you have a positive attitude and you work really hard at trying to get better, you will get better.”
Sergeant Maj. Van Engen plans to stay in the Army until his Date Eligible for Return from Overseas is up in July 2014. At that point, Van Engen will have completed more than 30 years of service.
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2013 17:43 |
| Story ID: | 102346 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, ALASKA, US |
| Hometown: | ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, US |
| Hometown: | JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 400 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Battle wounded Army sergeant major’s road to recovery, by SFC Jeffrey Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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