Why I Call Them Hero's

This story personifies why I call the troops hero's.

"Abdul-Raad was on his way to the river to turn on the pump that feeds water to his family's home.

He has no memory of the explosion, but the soldiers just 20 yards away heard it clearly.

"I saw a lot of dust and then I didn't feel anything," said Abdul-Raad. "I looked and saw that my arm and leg were cut off, and I passed out."

The boy tried to move, tried to get to the American soldiers and their armored vehicle. He fainted again. Then he came to once more.

"Mister, mister!" he cried.

By then, the soldiers from Second Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division were combing through the grassy banks of the Tigris River, searching for a bomb crater.

Abdul-Raad could still see three soldiers and cried out weakly: "Mister, please help me." They found him in the tall grass.

"We heard a little noise," said Sgt. Curtis Myers, 26, from Carbondale, Ill. "At first, it didn't even look like a person."

1st Lt. Charley Staab, 25 from Novi, Mich., carried Abdul-Raad, his leg hanging on by only some skin and muscle. The boy was pale but conscious. The other soldiers searched the river banks for explosives and found two more bombs.

Back in the armored vehicle, two soldiers tied tourniquets on the boy's injured limbs. They rushed back to base, where medics were waiting.

"He was definitely a priority to get him out of here," says Staff Sgt. Mica Phelps, 36, a medic from Killeen, Texas.

Once the boy was stable, a medevac helicopter took him to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad's Green Zone. Over two days of surgery, Abdul-Raad hovered between life and death. But 11 days later, he returned to the home he shares with his parents and five siblings in Arab Jabour."