ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JON CAWLEY STAFF WRITER
note: below
SPC. STEVEN MATTESON, who was wounded in the bombing, called his grandmother right after the explosion.
A Buena Vista man is one of the Americans injured in the bombing attack Tuesday at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Spc. Steven Matteson, 20, suffered cuts from flying glass, resulting in a total of 15 stitches, some between his eyes and others on his feet, said Polly Matteson, his grandmother.
Matteson was talking with a female Air Force acquaintance in an apartment building close to the one that was destroyed when the explosion occurred, she said.
"He said there was a big boom, and he didn't know what was going on. He threw the girl down and covered her. She was also cut, but not as bad as Steve," Polly Matteson said.
She also stated that her grandson called right after the explosion, as soon as he could get through on the telephone. That was the first she had heard of the bombing, because she hadn't been watching television.
"Steve said, 'Granny I'm all right, granny I'm all right.' And you know, you just get upset. I raised him, so he is just like one of mine," she said.
Matteson never expressed concern to his grandmother about violence directed toward Americans in Saudi Arabia, but "Steve's the type that doesn't tell you much. He knows I'd worry too much," she said.
Matteson joined the Army after graduating from Rockbridge County High School in 1993. He was stationed in Germany before being sent to Saudi Arabia, where he serves as a mechanic.
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