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  • Robert Garner, 24, a specialist in the U.S. Army and 2005 graduate of Neches High School, is recovering in a U.S. military hospital in Germany after receiving multiple injuries earlier this week during combat in Afghanistan. Garner, who had 18 staples placed in his head to close a wound, has also experienced vision and hearing loss, but is showing improvement in both those areas, according to his mother Jennifer Douglas. Courtesy Photo

    Soldier Garner

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April 27, 2012

Neches soldier recovering from injuries

Garner, 24, hurt in IED explosion

By PAUL STONE Palestine Herald-Press

NECHES — A 2005 graduate of Neches High School is recovering in a U.S. military hospital in Germany after receiving multiple injuries earlier this week during combat in Afghanistan.

Robert Garner, 24, a specialist in the U.S. Army, was injured Sunday night in a mountainous region of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border when a IED (Improvised Explosive Device) exploded just feet from him, according to his mother, Jennifer Douglas.

Garner suffered multiple injuries, including head lacerations; hemorrhaging in his right temporal; bursted eardrum; and scrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and hands, according to his mother.

Garner, who had 18 staples placed in his head to close the wound, has also experienced vision and hearing loss, but is showing improvement in both those areas, according to Douglas.

“His hearing is muffled, but he is regaining his hearing,” Douglas said. “His eyesight is blurry, but it’s coming back.”

The incident occurred sometime Sunday near an American outpost referred to as COP (Combat Outpost) Margah which has been “a hot zone” for much of the decade-long Afghanistan war.

“They were in combat,” Douglas told the Herald-Press Thursday morning. “Robert is a sawgunner. He had set his stand down and put his machine on it. He took a knee and took the explosion. It was a remote-activated IED.”

Douglas said her son’s sergeant explained that “the enemy was on a mountaintop watching them” and detonated the device when her son got close to it.

Garner, who was knocked unconscious by the force of the explosion, was initially in “critical” condition, according to his mother, but had improved to “serious” by the time he reached Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

“Now they’re saying he’s better,” Douglas said. “He’s on the upside of it.”

Douglas has talked to her son twice by telephone since the incident, including approximately 30 minutes on Wednesday.

The proud mother described her son’s spirits as “very good,” adding “all he’s worried about” are the other members of Charlie Company 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry.

“His brothers are still there,” said Douglas, repeating her son’s words.

Her son, who is slated to be discharged from the hospital next week, does not recall the actual explosion, she added.

“He (Garner) said he remembers laying his weapon down...and waking up in the hospital,” Douglas said.

After graduating from Neches High School, Garner earned his associates degree from Trinity Valley Community College and attended the University of Texas at Tyler before joining the U.S. Army in March 2010.

Garner was 30 days shy of leaving Afghanistan at the time of his injuries.

Douglas said the outcome could have been far worse.

“God was definitely on his side,” Douglas said.



Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com

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