Meet Hugo

I am Hugo Gonzalez and THIS IS MY STORY....

I served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). I was stationed in Bamberg, Germany when my unit was sent to Iraq. Once we got down range, our mission was divided into combat patrolling, convoy escort, raid missions and guard duties at Baquba, Iraq. The night of June 21 2004 seems very similar to many other combat patrols we made to ensure the curfew. We were following a lead about an I.E.D (improvised explosive device), in the town of Jhadi'r, in the province by the river Dijhala at Baquba. We didn't find anything that night in any of those houses, but when we received the march order, we got stopped by the explosion of an IED, and then we got ambushed.

We fought hard....... But by the time I heard the cease fire order I was already severely injured. As a consequence of that blast I suffered a penetrating traumatic brain injury (TBI) and lost the vision in my right eye, multiple pieces of shrapnel in my body including one that hit my left eye creating a macular hole in my left eye retina leaving me with a blurry vision in the left, one of the shrapnel fragmentation hit my left side upper maxillary sinus bone leaving a fracture. My mouth also got hit by some of those hot pieces of metal and I lost pieces from my lower front tooth. But we fight!! We fight bravely like each and every time we were engaged in combat during that tour in Iraq.

When I got evacuated to the war horse base camp, I got induced into a medical coma and underwent a craniotomy to remove a piece of bone from my cranium that consists of the frontal lobe, temporal lobe and parietal lobe to release the pressure that my oversized swelling brain was making towards the walls of my cranial cavity. That split second decision saved my life. Two days later I was flying back to Landstuhl, in Germany and from Germany to Washington DC at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Unfortunately during my later recovery at Walter Reed, I developed a post traumatic epilepsy condition as a consequence of the trauma that I received to my brain also known as a post traumatic migraine condition. This is a condition that still haunts me while I try to stand still. I also suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or (PTSD) that keeps placing a booby-trap in my own road to recovery. Because of those wounds I received in combat I received with honor the Purple Heart Medal. I was separated from the service for medical reasons with an honorable discharge. I retired from active duty effective June 2006 and removed from the temporary retirement list in 2008 with a 90% disability rating from the Army. The Department of Veteran's Administration granted me an 100% disability rating (P&T) or permanent and total.