Soldier doesn't let injury dampen his spirit to serve

By Danielle Letenyei
Gazette Staff

ORFORDVILLE-When two engines on the Chinook helicopter Chris Burr was riding in over the Iraqi desert went out, he knew what would happen next.

"My first thought was, '(Expletive), this isn't going to be good,'" he said.

Burr grabbed a stabilizer bar with one hand and his machine gun with the other.

"Then I just watched the ground come at me," he said.

On impact, Burr's lightweight frame bounced around the helicopter's cabin like a Super Ball. When the copter finally came to a rest, he was laying on top of one of his crewmates.

Miraculously, none of the helicopter's five crewmembers was killed in the May 22 accident.

Burr tells the story of the accident from the Orfordville home of his parents, Vickie and Jack Burr, where he is recovering from his injuries. He suffered two broken ribs and injured three vertebras in his spine. He and one other crewmate were the only ones on the helicopter whose injuries were severe enough that they were sent back to the states to recuperate.

The friend Burr landed on suffered a broken leg.

"We thanked him for being kind of fluffy and breaking Chris' fall," said Burr's mother, Vickie.

Burr spent time in hospitals in Balad, Iraq, and Germany before he was sent back to his station in Alaska for two more weeks of recuperation. He arrived home Wednesday.

As he got off the plane in Madison, Burr received a standing ovation from about 20 bystanders in the airport.

"I was embarrassed," Burr said. "I'm not comfortable with recognition from strangers."

"But he had an awfully big smile," his mother said.

Burr had been in Iraq for the past five months. He served as a Chinook crew chief for the Army's Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 123rd Aviation Regiment.

The Chinook helicopter is the workhorse of the Army, Burr said. His crew transported everything from troops to equipment. On one mission, the crew was responsible for transporting bodies of those wounded and killed at the Abu Ghraib prison.

For Burr, it was just another mission.

"There were a couple guys unnerved by it, but they got through it," he said.

Chinook helicopters travel mostly at night, because they are less visible to possible shooters, Burr said.

"A great big green school bus flying around during the day is kind of hard to miss," he said.

Burr said his helicopter has been shot at, but since it was hidden in the night sky, the shooters were probably aiming at the sound.

The reason the helicopter lost both engines on May 22 is still being investigated, he said.

Burr will be back home recuperating for three to six months. Despite what he's been through, he said he's looking forward to returning to Iraq.

"I want to get back and do my job," he said.

Burr's unit, however, will be on its way back to the states at about the same time he completes his recovering. That means he will have to wait until the next rotation to go back.

When that will be, he can't say for security reasons.

"Never once when I was over there did I think about leaving," he said.
http://www.gazetteextra.com/iraq_burr070505.asp

I can post these soldiers that have honor just as fast as you can post on the pussy mother fucks that still need momma to wipe their asses! :D

Of course most of the soldiers have honor. They're U.S. soldiers.

But that's not the same thing as believing in the cause. Ask any soldier who wants to go back and he or she will most likely tell you that it's for his fellow troops and nothing else.

The PILOT!:cool:

His skill saved those five men!:)

Maybe his quotes weren't so positive.;)