Twin Falls Marine loses legs in Iraq

[Crunchy Frog]

Twin Falls Marine loses legs in Iraq

TWIN FALLS (AP) - A high school track star who earned a track scholarship to Boise State University has lost his legs in an explosion in Iraq. Marine Cpl. Travis Greene, a 1999 Twin Falls High School graduate, is recovering at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after losing both legs above the knee.

The 24-year-old, in his third tour of duty in Iraq, was part of a team of Marines evacuating other Marines who had been injured in an earlier explosion. During the early December operation, a second explosion occurred.

Three other Marines and one Navy corpsman also lost one or both of their legs in the blast. Two were badly burned.

The injured soldiers were taken to a battlefield hospital and then to Germany before being flown to Bethesda. Greene was given 79 units of blood by the time he reached the United States.

http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2005/12/16/news/local/news02.txt

So, five soldiers lost one or both legs in one single incident in Iraq!!! I'm wondering why we're seeing almost nothing of this in the media. I'm also wondering what the real numbers are for amputation injuries among our soldiers. I've seen a few figures that looked much lower than what I would expect based on what we know is going on there.

I don't know if this qualifies as LBN, but I found it kind of astounding and wanted to post it somewhere.