HOW TO GO
What: Benefit for Staff Sgt. Sam Shockley featuring the band Sibling Rivalry, plus raffles, split the pot, silent auctions and food specials.
When: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. June 29
Where: Eli's Sports Bar, 3825 Krauss Lane, Ross Twp.
Donations: Can be made to the Sam Shockley Fund at any Fifth Third Bank
By the numbers
1.5 million: Number of U.S. troops deployed in war zones or combat missions worldwide
50,897: Soldiers wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan
6,700: Number of U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan
1,500: Number of U.S. troops who have lost an arm or a leg in combat
Source: Department of Defense
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The recovery of Staff Sgt. Sam Shockley has not been going as well as hoped, according to his mother.
Roberta Collins said that her 25-year-old son, a 2006 Ross High School graduate, has lost a lot of weight since being critically injured in Afghanistan in March when he stepped on and triggered an improvised explosive device while clearing roads for a personnel carrier.
Shockley, an engineer in IED detection, lost parts of both legs and three fingers on his right hand in the explosion. He is being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
“Because the soil over there is so filthy with animal feces, there has been a lot of fungus and bacterial infections in his blood,” she said.
Shockley is among more than 50,000 U.S. servicemen and women who have been wounded in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan during the past decade of war. Roughly 1,500 American troops have lost an arm or leg in battle and hundreds have endured the amputation of multiple limbs, according to the U.S. Army Surgeon General’s Office.
Doctors had initially hoped to save Shockley’s right knee, Collins said, but were not able to because of the infections, so both legs have been amputated above the knee.
He has been undergoing leech therapy and has been taking fungicides and has become “extremely anemic,” she said.
“He’s had a lot of complications,” Collins said. “He was 150 pounds before the accident and he’s now down to 87 pounds.”
The physical damages are only part of the toll war has taken on soldiers like Shockley and their families.
Collins said her family’s situation is further complicated by Shockley being treated so far from home. Collins, who is an ultrasound clinician, had to give up her job at a local clinic in order to be with her son, she said. And his father, John Shockley of Dayton, lost his job at an auto parts store, she said.
Last week, she came back to Hamilton to work odd jobs for a couple of months to raise some money, but then got a text message from her son asking her to come back. She has not been able to, however, because she doesn’t have the money to travel, and the travel allowance she has received from the Yellow Ribbon Fund — a charity that primarily helps returning veterans injured during active duty — has been exceeded.
Collins said that she had been making home-cooked food in a crock pot in her hotel room and left some soup beans for him when she left, hoping that if he had some comfort food he might be eat more, and he has gained a few pounds in the last week.
She said that she sold her car to help pay for her expenses, but now she worries about losing her home.
“When all this happened, I left everything in a hurry,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking, but just dropped everything and ran, so now I’ve had to deal with trying to pay my bills on time.
“But if I have to lose my home, it’s not that big a deal,” she said. “At least I’ll have Sam.”
The Butler County Veterans Service Commission, which served 432 people and provided $500,000 in financial and transportation assistance to veterans in 2012, has been able to help her make a couple of house payments.
According to assistant director Anna O’Neill, the Veterans Service Commission has several programs that are available to help families in such a situation and has made inquiries and referrals on the family’s behalf, but it has been a slow process because Collins has been in Washington, thereby slowing the paperwork that requires her signature.
Still, Collins feels that it has been too much of a struggle and wishes there were better programs to help the families of wounded soldiers.
“We think that our soldiers are either going to come home safe and sound or be killed,” she said. “There’s not much out there to prepare for the two or three years that they’ll be in critical care and rehabilitation.”
In the meantime, a group of Shockley’s friends and classmates have organized a fund-raising event at Eli’s Sports Bar in Ross on June 29.
They have also established the Staff Sgt. Sam Shockley Fund at Fifth Third Bank, according to Jessica Shaw. Donations can be made at any Fifth Third Branch, she said.
Shockley was on his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan and his second enlistment in the U.S. Army when the injuries occurred.
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