Wasilla veteran reflects on life after IED attack

WASILLA — Tyler Hall has sacrificed a lot for his country. The former U.S. Army sergeant enlisted in 1999 and came home nearly four years later missing a leg, with a rebuilt face, four fused vertebrae, a mended broken arm and a repaired torn aorta.

Like many wounded war veterans, Hall said his thoughts on Veterans Day are with those who never lived to see home again. He said his service was no more distinguished than others who have served in combat.

After graduating from Wasilla High School in 1999, Hall enlisted at the local recruiting station and found himself attached to the 14th Combat Engineers as part of one of the early deployments of U.S. troops into Iraq in 2003.

“We were sent over for the initial invasion,” he said. “Technically, we were a little behind the first wave. We had orders to go before it was even a war.”

Combat engineers “are basically tasked to do everything,” Hall said.

For him, that included ordinance disposal, missions to clear areas of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and improving basic infrastructure for troops. Those duties also included patrol and raid operations that kept his unit in a forward position, Hall said.

While he has many memories of his service during the war on terror, Hall’s most vivid are from Aug. 22, 2003.

“That’s the day I was blown up by an IED,” he said Friday from his Wasilla apartment. “It happened up above Tikrit around a little town called Baiji. We were heading south from Baiji from a fertilizer plant where we were staying.”

Although the road his convoy was traveling had been swept and cleared of IEDs previously, insurgents had returned and buried more in the road.

“Our vehicle was the second in the convoy and this time they got us pretty good,” he said.

Hall remembers the initial explosion, then he blacked out.

“The last thing I remember (about) being blown up was that the force was like an insane turbulence,” he said. “It knocked me out. I remember sparks and I remember the canopy collapsed.”

With a badly smashed face, mangled left leg, punctured left lung, torn aorta, broken back and other injuries, Hall’s friends and comrades thought for sure their sergeant was dead.

“They did CPR on one or two of us,” he said. “I was out and I know they did CPR on me because that’s how I woke up, with my buddy giving me CPR. I told him, ‘What are you trying to do, make out with me?’ He said, ‘Sgt. Hall, you’re alive.’ I said, ‘Of course I’m alive. Do you think I’m going to die that easy?’”

Hall said he heard others down the line saying “Sgt. Hall’s, alive, Sgt. Hall’s alive.”

The adage that war changes people is absolutely true, Hall said. He said he sympathizes with veterans who have a hard time dealing with their combat experiences and said those who serve multiple deployments have to receive attention to make sure they don’t slip through the cracks of receiving proper physical and metal care after their service.

“Honestly, a lot of people would think that after going through all this that I’d be more serious about things, but it’s kind of made me lighten up and realize you just have to cherish and enjoy things,” Hall said. “We don’t know how long we’ve got, so make the most of it.”

While he will live with the physical pain and reminders of his combat injuries for the rest of his life, Hall said he doesn’t harbor negative feelings about his military service.

“I’m really proud of my service and I really felt like my time (in the Army) was cut short,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of buddies who are in, or are veterans, and I look at their careers and they got to do more of a full career.”

Hall also said the reaction American troops received from Iraqi citizens was mainly positive, which he said made him feel they were on a morally important mission.

“When we first got there, a lot of the people were excited. They were pretty repressed by Saddam (Hussein). It was definitely a liberation-type attitude.”

Beginning immediately after being blow up by that IED in Iraq and in the months of recovery that followed, Hall said he was told he actually died and was revived eight times.

“I always get that reaction from people saying, ‘You must have nine lives,’” he said. “But I tell them not to say that, because the next time I’m screwed.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Sunday, Nov. 11

• Veterans Day memorial services at 10:30 a.m., at the Alaska National Guard Armory, Fort Richardson.

• Veterans Wall of Honor ceremony at 11 a.m., at the Mat-Su Visitors and Convention Center.

• Canadian Remembrance Day at 11:30 a.m., at Fort Richardson National Cemetery, Fort Richardson.

• Palmer Elk's Lodge No. 1842, 2600 N. Barry's Resort Dr., will celebrate Veterans Day at 1 p.m., at the lodge on Finger Lake. For more information, contact bpoe@mtaonline.net, or 745-3950, or visit palmerelks.org.

• Anchorage Concert Chorus will perform a special concert to salute veterans and active members of the military at 4 p.m., in the Atwood Concert Hall at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage. A pre-concert lecture is at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20. The concert includes performances by the Concert Chorus, the University of Alaska Anchorage Wind Ensemble, the University Singers and featured guest soloist pianist Timothy Smith, who will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. For more information, contact 263-ARTS, (877) ARTS-TIX, or visit CenterTix.net.

Monday, Nov. 12

• Our Lady of the Valley, 1201 Bogard Rd., is celebrating Veterans Day with a special mass at 9 a.m., followed by songs, poems and recognition from students to honor them. Donuts and coffee will be available and donations will be collected for people impacted by hurricane Sandy.

• A Veterans Day Celebration is planned at noon at Mat-Su College, 8292 E College Drive. There will be a Flag Folding Ceremony with the Colony High School Color Guard and Gene Horner from the Mat-Su Concert Band will perform Taps. For more information contact Shana Ellington at slellington@matsu.alaska.edu, or 746-9320.