Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991 TAG: 9102260176
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For weeks now, the Wythe County native has spent his days in physical therapy at an Army hospital in Washington, trying to build up strength in his injured right leg.
"I felt really guilty being here when the war started," said Wirt, who keeps the TV in his Walter Reed Army Medical Center room tuned to CNN. He's been transferred from hospital to hospital since Dec. 8, when an explosion sent shrapnel into his leg.
"I reasoned that I couldn't make too much of a difference - that there were people there to take my place. But I felt I needed to be there. I needed to take care of my soldiers."
Wirt, a Virginia Tech cadet who graduated in 1985, is an 82nd Airborne Division combat engineer.
He was teaching a class in December on detonating a charge and had just lit the fuse to 40 pounds of explosives when an Army truck drove into the area.
"For the entire week, no one who was unauthorized went in there," Wirt said. "And then this truck with soldiers comes driving over the desert. They looked lost. Anyway, it was driving straight for the charge."
Wirt and a few other soldiers went to the top of a protective berm to wave the truck away.
"I remember running alongside of it, trying to get in front of it so they would stop."
It did, he said. But everything else was a blur.
The charge blew. Wirt felt a pain in his leg. "I thought it was off for sure - it was so torn up."
No one else was hurt.
A medic stopped the bleeding and Wirt was flown to a Navy hospital for 11 hours of surgery. He's had 14 operations in the past three weeks.
"At first they were giving me a 10 to 20 percent chance to save the leg," he said. There were complications. Infections. Swelling.
"The doctor said he'd done all he could to save my foot, but they just couldn't get the blood flowing. Then, that night, five or six people from Southwest Virginia called. I was really bummed and I told them about my foot. . . . They all said they'd be praying for me.
"Then, the next morning, the blood was flowing like normal again. It was so strange. The doctor had tears in her eyes. . . . I have a firm belief in the ability of prayer these days."
Tech officials also have called to encourage him since his move to Walter Reed. "He was one of our real outstanding cadets," said Col. Gene Wilson, who was Wirt's adviser at Tech.
Wirt still uses a wheelchair, but he's getting used to crutches. He now spends about four hours a day in therapy. "I'm learning to get in and out of bed . . . to be as independent as possible. The more I can do, the faster I can get out of here. . . ."
He hopes to return to active duty, but faces a year of physical therapy before he'll know. "If I end up leaving, I'd like to go back to Virginia, settle someplace between Roanoke and Bristol," he said.
When he first went to the desert, he said, "it was so hot it was unbelievable." The soldiers were bored, he said, but needed to stay in shape.
"A bunch of them made their own weight benches. They used pipes for bars and poured concrete barbells." They also made volleyball stands and strung up nets.
"At first, we didn't have showers or latrines. We had to build those. It was an unbelievable amount of work."
Gradually, they got used to the climate. "And then it was train, train, train."
"There were no weekends, no leaves, just teamwork. And there weren't just certain training areas we could go into - there was just all this desert.
"You'd be amazed, after spending time there, just how much you come to appreciate the mountains of Southwest Virginia."
by CNB