Ex-veteran injured but would go back to Iraq in a heart beat

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

James Hammond, 38, served two-terms in Iraq and has spent 18-months in rehab having been shot in his left leg, but even though he keeps trying to re-enlist, he’s now “damaged goods” due to his injury. Today, he’s working as a waiter at Josephine’s Hardtimes Cooking Restaurant, 436 E. 79^th Street, a long way from Iraq.

“I want to go back, but my leg will not past the test, but that’s being part of being a soldier. They want the best, and I’m not the best on the front lines protecting the country. I did my job and now it’s somebody else’s turn,” said Hammond. He was shot by an Iraqi sniper two-years ago.

But, Hammond is a miracle veteran because physicians told him he would never walk again. He gets around faster than most of the employees at the restaurant.

Referring to time served in the Army, Hammond said, “It’s almost like a business especially with terrorism. They need the healthy ones up front and they are not going to keep the older ones and the older ones…. I would go back in a heartbeat.”

“I don’t like civilian life. It’s hard to get adjusted to,” Hammond said. “I like the orders. I like the cut and dry. It’s a different lifestyle.”

Saying some people think he’s been brainwashed by the military, Hammond said that is not true. “It’s a lifestyle. You do something for so long. It’s a lifestyle. It’s no longer a job. It’s part of you,” he said of the eight-years he spent in the military.

Asked about his family, Hammond said he now has a two-year-old girl who is his “pride and joy, my princess.” “I want to be on the battlefield, but I’m glad the way it happened. Uncle Sam knows what’s going on.”

Hammond has worked at Josephine’s Hardtime Restaurant for six-days now and already he has made a lot of friends with the customers especially the veterans. He is living with his in-laws who reside a few blocks from the restaurant.

In the interim, Hammond is trying to get his GI Bill and get a job in computers which he what he worked on in the Army. “Right now, the best thing in my life is my daughter, Izarrie.”

Asked about the violence that is plaguing the city, Hammond said, “I think a lot of people an do a lot. I think they are on an uphill battle. They are not being given the tools they need to make more progress.”

Referring to the alleged gang activities, Hammond said in India when someone commits a crime, they are simply killed. “It may be a little extreme, but it’ll knock it out. I think the kids who are committing violence are hiding behind their civil rights. I have a daughter, and I don’t want her getting shot. Who wants to be a soldier to protect this place when this place is worse than where I came from.”

“I don’t know who can make a difference but I know there has to be a change which is my I like Obama so much…. “

Hammond  sprinted over to one of the tables to see if the couple wanted something more. He and the male patron began talking military talk. He struck up a conversation with Michael Waddy, a Vietnam Veteran who served from September of 1967 and was discharged in 1970.

Waddy was drafted right after he graduated from high school. ‘I asked the recruiter what can I do to defer this, but he said we could defer it up to September but then I would have to take another year.

Waddy decided to enlist which meant he would serve for three years vs. two-years if he were drafted. “I asked the recruiter what was my chances of going to war, and he said don’t worry about it. He said you’ll be in school and you won’t have to worry about it.”

He chose the occupation of radio microwave technician, which was a critical Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) in Vietnam, but Waddy said the recruiter lied to him.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.