Loss of legs forced soldier, brother closer

[unhappycamper]

Pisey Tan, right, and his younger brother, Dara, are seen during an interview in Woodlyn, Pa., on Sept. 4. The Tan brothers had barely spoken to each other but now share a home, reunited by a roadside bombing in Iraq in 2004 that forced the amputation of Pisey Tan's legs.


Loss of legs forced soldier, brother closer
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Oct 28, 2007 17:40:10 EDT

WOODLYN, Pa. — For years, Pisey Tan and his kid brother, Dara, had barely spoken to each other. Each had gone his separate way — Pisey into the Army, Dara off to college.

Today they share a home and are as close as two brothers can be, reunited by a roadside bombing in Iraq in 2004 that left Pisey’s legs bandaged stubs.

It’s been a long, agonizing three years. Dara, now 22, has carried, pushed, picked up, encouraged and sometimes fought with his brother, who has learned to walk with ease on prosthetic legs.

“He thinks I’m a psychopath maniac sometimes and I think he’s a stubborn hardheaded dude sometimes,” says Pisey, four years the elder. “It’s brotherly love though.”

As he regained consciousness at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Pisey’s thoughts turned to his mother. How would he let her know he had lost his legs?

As a war refugee from Cambodia who had come to the United States as a teenager, she had endured a lot and he didn’t want to upset her.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_brothers_071028/

[zalinda]

1. Well, at least some good came out of Bush's war. n/t