Vets with post-traumatic stress fight for aid

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http://www.lohud.com/article/2009903090343

March 9, 2009

It was during his first deployment in Iraq that Marine Cpl. David Tracy, 23, of Peekskill earned his Purple Heart.

"I was up top behind the gun when we stopped at a checkpoint and a roadside bomb exploded on the other side of the barrier," said Tracy, an infantryman who served as a machine gunner in Baghdad and Fallujah.

Shrapnel nearly blew off Tracy's right earlobe.

"The whole right side of my face was numb," Tracy said as he sat with his wife, Becky, and 8-month-old son, Sean, in the living room of their Peekskill condominium. "The handkerchief I used to pull up to cover my mouth (from sand, smoke and dust) was soaked in blood. Two Marines on the other side of the road were hit and lying on the ground."

Medical personnel at the base near Baghdad sewed up Tracy's earlobe. About an hour later, he was back out on patrol.