Welcome Home Spc. David Bangson
Member Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 8
(former member of Ohio Chapter 2)
 


Spc. David Bangson is a former member of Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2.  David changed his membership to Ohio Chapter 8 when his Mom and Dad, Gail and John Dorner, changed their membership to Ohio Chapter 8 to have a meeting place closer to home.

David was injured in Iraq.  What follows is an amazing account of David's recovery told by David's Mom, Gail Dorner, Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 8 member.  The account is about David's injuries and all the people he met while recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital.
 

 
Recovery Account as told by Gail Dorner


My name is Gail Dorner and I would like to tell you about a very special soldier.  His name is Spc. David Bangson and is my son.

 

He was a Crew Chief on a Black Hawk Helicopter for the United States Army.  He joined the Army in 2000 and was sent to Katerbach, Germany.  From the time he left for Germany, John and I got to see him twice.  The last time was Christmas 2003.  That is when we found out that he would be going to Iraq in or about the end of February or beginning of March.  David called us just before they left for Kuwait; of course, as a mom, I was really upset and wanted to tell him to come home.  At the same time, we were very proud of him and he said not to worry this was his job and he believed in their mission. 

 

David and his M16 and Humvee

I had just gotten home from work on March 2, 2004, when I received a phone call.  At first, I thought it was David saying that they got to their destination, but when I said Hi, the person on the other end asked if I was Spc. Bangson’s mom, I told him yes and he assured me that David was ok but had gotten injured in Iraq.  My life as I knew it ended.  They told me that there was an accident with a Humvee and that it landed on him.  He was flown to a place called Landstuhl, Germany, where he was able to call me.  At that time, he told me they could not fix him there and that they were sending him to Walter Reed in D.C.  Of course John and I immediately made plans to go to D.C.  While we were waiting to hear back from the military for our travel papers, we got to talk to his Rear Detachment Commander that told us what had happened.  The convoy had been traveling for about 27 hours.  David was the spotter in the passenger side and the Safety Officer was the driver.  After all the driving time, they stopped to fuel and the Safety Officer decided to talk to the Commander about getting a little rest for everyone.  Everyone got about 1 hour of sleep.  The Commander said they had to leave and David felt bad that the Safety Officer didn’t get any rest so he said he would drive.  To make a long story a little bit shorter, the Humvee went off the road and, when he tried to correct the Humvee, he overcorrected which sent the Safety Officer out the passenger side door.  When David tried to correct the Humvee again, David went out the driver side door.  The Humvee flipped and the top corner of the roof landed on our son’s stomach and pelvic area.  The doctor said that if the Humvee landed any further up, David would have been crushed to death.  David said he saw it coming straight for him and there was nothing he could do.  It took his buddies about a half hour to finally get the Humvee off of him.  On March 8, 2004, late at night, David arrived at the Walter Reed Hospital, and John and I arrived on March 9th.  When John and I walked into David’s hospital room,  David didn’t look like there was too much wrong with him, but when he took his blankets down to show us his left side, from his waist to the middle of his thigh was blown away from his muscles, tendons, and was filled with fluid.  He could only lay flat on his back and John and I had to physically move his bottom half of his body while he moved the top half and we had to do it in one motion or he would be in extreme pain.  That went on for 1 week.  They were waiting on the top Orthopedic Specialist to come back and they needed all that swelling to go down.  They told us that his pelvic on his right side was broken in two places and pushed out and down 3 inches, his hip joint on the left was slightly popped out, he had a horseshoe fracture on his sacrum and his urethra was blown away from his bladder.  We found out that while at the Bagdad Hospital, they repaired his bladder before poison had set in which would have killed him if not timely treated.  As a mom, I could not leave him; John didn’t want to, but someone needed to work and pay bills, besides, John said that David needed his mom.  John did stay till after David’s surgery which was on March 16, 2004.  It was a success for his pelvic.  They had to push the two broken pieces back in place and put a metal plate across it to hold it together, and put two 6 inch screws (one on each side) in his hip bone to strengthen his hips and to secure his sacrum.  It was really interesting to see the new things they are using now for our soldiers.  They have this machine that scans an x-ray and makes a 3D resin model of your bones.  David’s doctor gave him one of his hip and Walter Reed has one on display because David’s injuries were so unique.  I stayed with David for two and a half months.  I was able to stay right there at Walter Reed at the hotel on Base as a guest of the Army.  David went through a lot of emotional battles as well as physical but was always determined.  There is so much that went on that it is very hard to put into words.  He had numerous set backs and the doctors weren’t sure he would be out of the Hospital by the end of summer.  One of the things he still had to deal with after his pelvic surgery was when the Urologist was going to fix his urethra.  They told him it would be at least 6 months from his injury.  He was devastated.  He was really sick and tired of the Super Pubic Catheter.  He was in a lot of pain most of the time and was really medicated.  All he wanted was to get better so he could be with his unit again in Iraq.  He felt like he let them down.  The physical therapy was really painful, but once he got up in that wheel chair, the first thing he did was check his e-mail, and ordered a gas powered remote car, had it shipped to the Hospital and worked on it so when the doctors said he could go outside, that’s where he was taking it.  Around the middle of April, the doctors told David that he could go home for 30 days leave but that he would be coming home in a wheel chair.  David told them that they were crazy if they thought he was leaving that hospital in a wheel chair.  He was going to walk and he was going home by the end of May.  Well to make a statement to them, he got the physical therapist to bring him crutches by the end of the first week of May.  He did walk out of the hospital on his own power and was really excited; of course the doctors and John and I were overjoyed.  I cried of course.  We were home by the end of the second week of May.  He is my HERO.  Now that you understand some of the bad things he went through, let me tell you about the people who inspired him.

 

While he was recuperating, he was visited by a lot of stars and famous people that really inspired him.  Some of these famous people were Senators and he also got to meet the President and First Lady.  He remarked to everyone that he couldn’t believe they would come to see someone like him and why would they thank him instead of the other way around.  He was really excited about the President and the First Lady; they were really wonderful, down to earth people.  They talked to us for about 15 – 20 minutes.  David even got to pose for a picture with him and Sponge Bob (stuffed thing I bought him).  He not only got an 8x10 signed picture of him and the President but also go an 8x10 with Sponge Bob and the two of them.  Mrs. Bush remarked to me that men are just little boys inside EVEN THE PRESIDENT!!!!!!  David was impressed and told him that he hoped he became President again so David and the rest of the men and women could finish what they were there for.  He received the Presidential Coin at that time.  Rumsfeld, Condaleeza Rice, and Myers are a few of the other political figures he go to meet.  They were all so friendly and David said it was wonderful that they took the time out of their busy day to come and see all the men and women who were injured.

 

David, President Bush, Gail, David's Dad, and Laura Bush
 

President Bush talks with David and Gail
 

THE HANDSHAKE - Awesome
 

Another awesome handshake with Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
 

David with Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, and Gail
 

Some of the stars he met were Gary Sinece, Sean Austin, Wynonna Judd, Clint Black and Mellissa Ethridge.  Of course he got autographed pictures of everyone he met along with the coins from the political figures.  Sean Austin also gave him a coin (he was the youngest ambassador).  Hey, he even got to meet Michael Jackson!

 

David, Michael Jackson and Gail
 

David with Gary Sinise, Actor and Director
 

David with Clint Black, Country Western Entertainer, Gail and Dad
 

David with Gail and Winona Judd, Entertainer
 

David and Sean Austin
 

David with Melissa Etheridge, Entertainer
 

As I said earlier, we came home around the middle of May, of course he did have to go back to Walter Reed Hospital and still had another surgery to go through.  They had decided to do his surgery in August to repair his urethra.  I flew back to Walter Reed to be there with him again and stayed another week.  By this time, I could walk that whole base blindfolded!  The surgery took 6 ½ hours.  I was going crazy.  The doctors said that it would take a few weeks before they would know if it took.  Well his injuries were so bad inside that it was not a success. 

David contemplates his next move

 

David was devastated.  Would he have this SP tube forever?  They decided to try again around Thanksgiving.  He wanted to come home for Christmas but that was the time they chose to remove his tube and see if it was successful.  Guess what – it was!  Of course, like anything, there were still some things that had to still try to function since it had been since March that nothing was working.  Well, it is now the middle of May 2005 and David is really doing great.  The doctors were very excited to see how well and how fast his pelvic healed.  In January this year, he was snowboarding in PA and doing other crazy things.  The doctors told us that he would be able to do anything he did before and his own limitations would be those that he placed on himself.  On Thursday, the 12th of this month, he flew back to Germany by the request of The Big Red One to join them in their homecoming.  His unit was attached to them in Iraq.  They didn’t want to leave him out since he was the only one that would not have been there.  He couldn’t wait to go back and see all of his buddies.  They planned a skiing trip to Austria so David could go snow boarding on last time over there with them.  He should be home by Tuesday the 17th.  I will keep you all posted to let you know his progress.  I would like to say just one more thing.  The soldiers and their families that we were blessed to meet while we were there were remarkable. 

 

Two of the families David, John and I got to meet are from Ohio, one from Lake Milton, the other from around Bellville.  I keep in touch with them on a regular basis and have told them all about Rolling Thunder®.  The one other family that really made an impact was from South Dakota (the Black Hills).  David and their son became very good friends and they still talk to each other all the time.  He also had an unfortunate accident.  He had brain damage and didn’t even know his wife or mom.  David was able to help him out a lot when David was able to get in his wheel chair he would go and visit Sean’s room and work with Sean, show him how to eat his hamburger, help him with naming things and when the two of them were allowed to go to the rec center, David got him to play pool as well as table tennis.  Sean’s mom said David was a God sent and an Angel.  She said David’s patience and ability to related to Sean helped him out more than any of the doctors.  While I was there, I noticed the wonderful unity these men and women have with one another.  I believe if everyone in the world had this unity, we would not be in the shape the world is in now.  The one thing Sean really enjoyed doing was just to go outside and him and David would run David’s remote control truck all over the grounds at Walter Reed – it sure did turn a lot of heads.

 

David and good friend Sean
 

 

And I will never forget Regina Tally.  Regina works for the VVA and became very close to the three of us.  Regina took me all over DC just to get me out of the hospital and even brought me a birthday cake (for John since he didn't know where to go to get one).  Regina also has a son in the Army and when she moved from DC to go back to her home state of Tennessee, her son John was sent to Iraq.  I just found out that a member of her son's unit was killed in all those attacks a few weeks ago.  Regina was in DC for the Run to The Wall on Memorial Day and was able to pick up David to get him to see The Wall activities.  For that I am very grateful.

 

So now you know most of the story of my favorite HERO.  I hope you will all get to meet him and welcome him home.  We have the understanding that he might be home for good sometime in August or September.  They are giving him a medical discharge, and he is ok with that.  I will keep you posted on this progress and maybe you will get the chance to see him.

 

Thank you folks at Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2 for your interest in our Son and also a member.

 

PS:  For an update, David will be home FOR GOOD the end of August or beginning of September.  The Army gave him a medical discharge.

 

Thanks again for everything.

 

John and Gail

 

 

 

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