Truth and Tucson (Two)

(Continued from here.)

Contrary to first reports, Jared Loughner was not an Afghanistan veteran - in fact, he'd been rejected for military service. But there were several veterans involved at the scene of his crime and the hospital where his victims were treated. Their stories would emerge in the days following the shooting.

Among them, James Eric Fuller, 63, "a naval air veteran [who] drove himself to Northwest Hospital after being shot," Kenneth Veeder, 75, "a retired Vietnam veteran in the Airborne Infantry division of the Army. According to KVOA-TV in Tucson, a bullet grazed Veeder in the leg. He was treated and released from the hospital in one day," and George Morris, 76, a former Marine who took two gunshot wounds, and whose wife Dorothy was killed in the assault.

More:

The Morrises, though Republican, had attended Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's "Congress on Your Corner" event Saturday because they wanted to ask her about something that was on their minds, friends said. When a gunman, identified by police as Jared Lee Loughner, opened fire on the gathering, Giffords was severely wounded.

Royle said he spoke to George Morris in the hospital. "He's hurting - emotionally and physically," Royle said. "He has some pretty good wounds. He's out of intensive care, but he will need some therapy. The bullet wound went through him. He has a broken rib and punctured lung. And he has a bullet in his right leg. He told me when it all happened, he went to fall on his wife to protect her, but she was already gone."

Also present was 74-year-old retired Colonel Bill Badger:

A 74-year-old retired Army colonel who helped disarm and subdue the gunman who went on the shooting rampage here credits his military training for his ability to respond quickly.

Bill Badger said in an interview at University Medical Center that he was wounded and disoriented in Saturday's shooting but still managed to assist three others in holding the suspect down until police arrived.

"I dropped down all the way to the ground, and I lowered my head about 6 inches. I felt this burning, stinging sensation right in the back of my head," he said.

Then the shooting stopped. The gunman had run out of ammunition. Badger said he was disoriented but saw another man hit the gunman over the head with a chair.
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Meanwhile, a woman knocked a second clip of ammunition out of the gunman's hand. Badger said he got the shooter in a choke hold while another man forced his knee into the suspect's neck.

"The guy's face was in the cement, and every time he would move, I would tighten my grip on his throat and this individual would push harder with his knee and all he (the gunman) said was, 'Ow, ow, ow, ow,' " Badger said.

Badger, a military pilot for 26 years, said they held the suspect down for around five minutes until help arrived.

Badger said he had no idea how badly his head was bleeding.

The number of veterans in the crowd might seem surprising at first glance - but it isn't. Though often dismissed as flag-waving suckers (or even perceived as threats - see part one), most of those who've devoted years of their lives to defending the nation simply take a more active (and absolutely non-violent) interest in the political freedoms they've guaranteed. They end up in just about every political party on the American scene, but in this case several ended up in the hospital. Waiting for them there:

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, gunshot wound through her brain, was fortunate enough to be wheeled into the emergency room of a uniquely qualified surgeon: Dr. Peter Rhee, a 24-year military surgeon who has treated "hundreds and hundreds" of battlefield injuries during stints in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rhee, 49, chief of trauma at University Medical Center in Tucson, said his work in the Navy tending to injured soldiers and Marines and teaching the next generation of battlefield medical personnel unquestionably played a role in his ability to treat Giffords and direct care for the 10 other victims who began arriving in his unit Saturday morning.

In 1992, the Navy set up the Navy Trauma Training Center at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California hospital. The idea was straightforward: Navy doctors would work side by side with civilian doctors as the gunshot victims of L.A.'s street violence came through the hospital. Doctors there were seeing wounds from weapons that once were fired only by soldiers.

Rhee used his experience treating trauma injuries in Los Angeles -- the gunshots wounds, the stabbings, the car crashes -- to prepare military doctors, nurses and other medical personnel for the battlefield.

He described Tucson as "decidedly quieter than his past posts," though according to McClatchy news:

Tucson, Rhee said, was the perfect place for him after his military career, allowing him to teach at the University of Arizona and see regular trauma, in part because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We don't get a madman shooting 20 people but we get mass casualties," he said. "We know we how to handle them."

He also called on other military doctors to help treat Giffords. Dr. Geoffrey Ling, an Army colonel and an expert on brain trauma, was on his way to Afghanistan when he was diverted to Tucson. He and Dr. James Ecklund, a retired Army colonel, assessed the treatments and met with Giffords' family, including her husband, Mark Kelly, an active-duty Navy captain and astronaut.

Still, "Tucson is actually, for a trauma surgeon, very embarrassing and pathetic because violence is almost nonexistent," Dr Rhee said. "I know everyone in the country thinks World War III is going on in Arizona, but it's probably still the nicest place I can think of to live."

A trauma surgeon would know - but others would disagree, including a now-well known sheriff. And while there were many individuals above whose actions are praiseworthy, one - following a series of absurd twists in this tragic tale - would lend credence to expressed early fears that political hate speech can push "some folks over the edge." To understand that completely - or as much as possible - we'll have to return to day one and follow those twists and turns from the beginning.

Part three here.