European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Page 30 stars and stripes Mideast e d i Tion june 2007 stripes heroes where Are they now definitely changes y by Lisa Burgess stars and stripes i dont talk about it a staff Konrad Reed As a Black Hawk helicopter buzzed overhead the East Baghdad base he was calling Home in i have a platoon of 33 and maybe 10 of them know about it is a Bronze Star with and one of the weirder combat stories to come out who was then 23 1 hero really mean to those who have earned years was an artillerymen with the 82nd once a few years have passed stripes tracked Down borne serve remembers Sions c were featured in editions of to find out How 319th lives have changed borne they were decorate for they posted at firebase near the Border with on april Reed survived a firefight that included not but two grenade explosions including one that went off right underneath him and threw him six feet in the two service members died in the fight that and More than 20 were but despite 42 shrapnel Reed was Back on duty after just three Days of recuperation at the Hospital at Bagram air four years Reed is still with the this time with the 1st 504th Parachute infantry and Hes on his fourth now that Hes moved away from the unit where everybody knew the Story about the Afghanistan Hes no longer accorded the same kind of quiet defer said who has been selected for promotion to sergeant first in my old everybody wanted to hear what i Reed everyone treats you in his new Reed i feel More it Doest help matters that Reed has such a difficult time talking about what happened that Day except with people who went through it with the few who talk about it a they were there in Afghanistan on april but they we rent involved in the actual Reed it seems like the More someone talks about the less he actually in despite the fact that Hes Back in a combat with reminders of War All around i dont even think about it a Reed then he paused and corrected i do and i he certain certain sounds they take you right its kind of asked whether the events of april 25 changed Reed it definitely changes makes you think about things Reed at the same a lot of the reason in Good at my Job is because it Hast changed Reed moved off the topic clearly who hails from Lisa and stripes staff Konrad who was awarded a Bronze Star with v for his actions during a firefight in Afghanistan in april was Back in Baghdad in Early scored the Iraq trifecta when his unit crossed the Kuwait berm in for this last we got the official word wed be going on and we were in Kuwait on Reed the 504th Pir is part of the troops ordered by president Bush to Iraq in january to help secure the unit want completely Reed said As the army ready Battal expected to be prepared to pick up and go anywhere in the world on a moments the 504th was on the bub ble but its a Little More complicated for Reed to leave than it is for some because Hes leaving behind five As Well As his so none of Reeds experiences in Iraq have come close to the level of Dan Ger he experienced in he although Hes been on patrols where his humvee came under and insurgents used to throw rockets and mortars at his other than nothing sex Reed Reed and his unit Are in the heart of based at Forward operating base loyalty and in charge of Sadr one of the most restive and dangerous areas in the entire i dont really worry too much for my Reed Ive been Here a few and i know what to i be Lieve i know How to keep myself out of but i definitely worry about the people in my watching Reed outside the 504th Tacti Cal operations or at its Clear that other soldiers treat him with respect and even a slight he Doest always say but Hes a one who didst want his name said about i know what he did in and its not about the the Soldier its that he survived the id rather go into a fight with someone like that any email Lisa Burgess at  Best time of my working with marines7 by Lisa Burgess stars and stripes life want supposed to turn out like this for Alan less than four years Petty officer 2nd class Dementer was being called a Navy his friends and family watched with Pride As he was pinned with a Bronze Star with a v device for his actions during the Battle in on March while serving As a corpsman with the 2nd Battal 8th Marine a strapping six footer who single Anderly lifted and carried wounded marines in full combat gear to safety through hails of enemy was credited with helping treat 31 Devil dogs through that Long when a mortar hit near the throwing him onto his Back and spraying him with he was so with so much adrenaline coursing through his he barely registered the in the aftermath of the the physical wounds from the shrapnel that sliced Dementer through the shoulder and leg healed the mental wounds Are taking like Many service members who survived that one of the invasions bloodiest Hes still struggling with Post Trau Matic stress but there was yet another layer of wounds Dementer suffered that wounds that  be healed with stitches or i didst know it at the but when i got knocked on my i got blast Dementer said in a Telephone interview with stripes from his Home near Iron what Navy doctors later after countless was that the blast dam aged nerves in his up near his As Dementer scrambled to move his Marine charges to he unknowingly aggravated the but even if he had realized Dementer told he  have done anything those marines were not Only his responsibility they were his the Best friends i Ever he friends he misses desperately since he was medically discharged from the Navy in soon after Dementer he started getting burning pain in his hands and which would then go his Back Hurt and i  lift much of i was in Dementer he kept hoping the symptoms would go he wanted to get better so he could be assigned with another Marine unit and get Back to the combat All i wanted to do was go Back to the Dementer he that was the Best time of my working with after returning from Dementer and his family were transferred to great lakes naval where he spent countless hours at the naval trying to find the source of the at doctors diag nosed him with poly a chronic and severe nerve pain that affects All the usually caused by a traumatic they later refined that to diagnosis degenerative nerve which Means that not Only will dem enters condition not its just going to get slowly worse and said his who had joined the Telephone when he got the news of his forced retirement from the medical Board in Dementer had 16 years in the ser vice four critical years Short of the Al important 20year Mark he needed to qualify for retirement those four years also pushed Dementer into the exceptions category of the so called concurrent receipt Law con Gress passed in before military retirees were not allowed to collect both their monthly retirement stipend and any disability payment they May have earned from the department of veterans military advocacy groups tried to get i didst know it at the but when i got knocked on my i got blast 99 Alan Dementer the Law changed for saying the two payments were but Congress kept saying it was too expensive to and double dipping to As of the Law was changed so that retirees with disability ratings of higher than 50 percent Are allowed to collect both pay but the Law exempts service members who have been retired for medical reasons with less than 20 years of like Alan these members Are not allowed to collect both their monthly medical retirement from the defense department and the a its one or the since the a stipend is High that the payment service members this is an Issue that is increasingly affecting service members who Are getting Hurt in Iraq and he Alan and Jerri Dementer Are raising three children on just his a disability which amounts to about fully taxable a plus whatever Jerri can earn providing Day care from their for us not getting both payments Means a few Hundred dollars a Dementer that Money would mean a lot to email Lisa Burgess at