The first time he was shot at, Sgt. Collin Urbanski’s body was
jarred into constant alert mode, and now that he’s back home it
refuses to slow down.
The first time he was shot at, Sgt. Collin Urbanski’s body was jarred into constant alert mode, and now that he’s back home it refuses to slow down.
After returning from Iraq in February, Urbanski knew something was wrong when he couldn’t sleep and lost his appetite. Later, the 24-year-old was diagnosed with a psychological side effect of war – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“We talked, then we cried over it,” his father, Chris, said.
Now, Urbanski is trying to pick up his life from the point it was interrupted by a call to duty five years ago as other young men from Gilroy struggle to do the same.
Collin is seeing a therapist, who tells him to talk about his experiences in Iraq. So he does, in his mild-mannered way, while seated at the family’s dining room table.
“That’s the only way I can get rid of it,” he said.
The Army infantryman first served in Kuwait and shortly after Sept. 11 volunteered to serve in Iraq. While there, he lived in a building U.S. troops were converting into a barracks at Baghdad’s airport. The barbed wire was newly strung, bare floors were covered in sand and food hadn’t arrived yet.
His unit worked nonstop, sleeping only four to five hours a day. One week, while on night patrols, his unit was ambushed six times. So, everyone was ordered to remain inside after 8 p.m., but they weren’t safe there either. They were constantly bombarded with mortars.
“At first, a lot of people wanted to run outside, but that wasn’t too smart. So I had to drag them in,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do. You can just sit there and hope for the best.”
His step-mother, Susan, is hearing much of this for the first time. She sighs and says she prays he can put the bad memories behind him.
Urbanski was asked to do another tour in Iraq, but he refused. He’s tired of putting his life on hold, he said. He is interviewing for jobs in Sacramento and plans to enroll in American River College in Sacramento.
“He has hopes and dreams like everybody else,” his step-mother said affectionately. “I think he’s done his turn.”
Remarkable recovery
Meanwhile, Spc. Cory McCarthy, 22, is recovering from the 10th – and what he hopes is the final – surgery to his hand mangled by a roadside bomb in Ouja, Iraq, last August.
Doctors had given him a 5 percent chance of regaining full use of his hand. In a surprising comeback, he already is capable of doing 50 to 60 percent of what he used to be able to do with his right hand.
“He bounced back a lot further than they ever thought he would,” said his father, Michael.
While McCarthy’s physical wound heals, his own symptoms of PTSD are starting to surface, including difficulty sleeping and a suppressed appetite. There are also the emotional dues to pay – difficulty being close to and trusting family and friends, he said.
“It’s really hard to re-adjust,” he said. “It’s the same with any type of soldier who comes back from combat. You kind of look at things differently.”
About 30 percent of soldiers who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD. The disorder is even more common among those who are wounded.
“Due to the fact that I was wounded, I didn’t get to say good-bye,” McCarthy said.
A medic in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, McCarthy was injured when a roadside bomb exploded next to his Humvee while his unit was searching for a former member of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The blast shattered his hand, leaving his thumb attached only by a few threads and shrapnel embedded in his legs and arms.
The rifle he held between his knees took the brunt of the explosion and disintegrated, his father said. McCarthy applied a tourniquet to his arm with the help of another soldier and kept assessing other soldiers’ injuries.
“Even when he was wounded, he was more concerned about treating the other guys than he was about his wounds,” said Kevin Conant, a family friend and McCarthy’s counselor. McCarthy had earned the respect of his fellow soldiers, who called him “doc,” and sergeants asked for him by name.
Afterward, McCarthy was flown to Landstuhl, Germany, and then to Walter Reed Hospital on the East Coast for treatment. Throughout it all, he kept saying he wanted to return to Iraq to be with his unit because he felt like he was letting them down.
“There is a lot of guilt involved in post-traumatic,” his father said, “guilt at not being with your guys since he was their medic. He was used to looking after them.”
A counselor at Walter Reed diagnosed McCarthy with PTSD in March after he suffered a breakdown of sorts.
“I guess one day he just started crying and couldn’t stop,” Michael said.
Now, the younger McCarthy seems to be doing fine, his father said. He takes pills to help him sleep, however even with their aid he can only doze for a few hours at a time.
He is getting his chance to say good-bye by driving cross-country to Walter Reed so he can stop and see his comrades at their various bases along the way. The 173rd was one of the first units to arrive in Iraq and last to leave, and likely will be redeployed to Afghanistan soon, but McCarthy won’t be going with them. He is waiting to be discharged from the Army.
Because of his handicap, the Army won’t allow him to jump out of planes anymore or even carry a weapon, he said. He’s worried that his long-time dream of being in the fire service or paramedicine will be lost, as well. It’s a disappointment, because in Iraq he was beginning to touch on something he was really good at, Conant said. But McCarthy isn’t one to back down.
“He’s the kind of person, if there’s a way to accomplish it, he’ll give it 120 percent to try to make it happen,” his father said.
McCarthy plans to enroll in fire agility training at Mission College to see if he can perform the physical tasks required of the job.
Advice from a Vietnam vet
Supporting the family through McCarthy’s recovery has been Gilroyan Lee Roy Pipkin, who was injured in Vietnam and also suffers from PTSD. Pipkin has counseled numerous war veterans with symptoms of PTSD.
Most often, the best medicine for returning soldiers with PTSD is talking with other veterans, Pipkin said. But family and friends can be supportive, as well.
“They need to have acknowledgment that they are serving,” he said. “We can’t thank them enough for their service to our country. Acknowledge that and give them sincere and heartfelt thanks for what they’re contributing. I can’t state that enough.”
