Blood Brothers
by Michael Weisskopf
Published by Henry Holt and Company
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Pam Griffith
For author and Time magazine senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf, the events of December 10, 2003 changed his life forever. While riding on a humvee with US troops as an embedded reporter in Iraq, Weisskoph sees a dark smoking object land near him, he picks it up and feels hot searing heat burn his handâ•” then everything goes dark.
After initial medical treatment in Iraq and Germany, Weisskoph finds himself on Ward 57--the amputee wing of Walter Reed Medical Center. Now feeling more like a soldier than a reporter, he builds relationships with some extraordinary men:
-- Corporal Robert Isaccs, "Bobby," enlisted on September 17, 2001. "Someone had to stand up for the American way". Bobby is hit by a roadside bomb in Mosel and although his chance of recovery looks grim, heroic medics save him and he pulls through to recover on Ward 57 with a steady stream of amputees.
-- Sargent First Class Luis Rodgriguez, a career military medic, struggles not only with his physical loss, but now his purpose in life.
-- Peter John Damon, the Black Hawk mechanic who thought he was out of harms way, was injured when the metal rim on a Black Hawk tire he was inflating explodes and takes both his hands. Recently engaged, he agonizes that he no longer has a place for his wedding ring.
In his account, Weisskopf is brutally honest about his motive to pick up the grenade. He wonders: Did he know it was a grenade? Did he even throw it...or merely drop it when he felt the heat? People call him a hero, but he has doubts. Like him, his "blood brothers" have to work through the guilt of their individual circumstance and the guilt of survival.
Blood Brothers, a gripping read, is not for the faint of heart. It brings the harsh reality of war into your soul and makes you feel deeply for the sacrifices made.
Armchair Interviews says: Stories of true war heroes.