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Marine doesn't give up on Corps

by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly

Staff Sgt. James M. Sturla knows what it means to get back up after being knocked down.

Staff Sgt. James M. Sturla, a 27-year-old master gunner with C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5, from Pompton Plains, N.J., does a pull-up on the bar at Camp Fallujah's tank ramp Dec. 9. Completing the required number of pull-ups and passing a physical fitness test allowed Sturla to be reattached to his unit and redeployed to Iraq. Sturla suffered severe injuries to his left arm after his tank was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade outside Husayba, Iraq, Sept. 22, 2004. (photo by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly)

The 27-year-old company master gunner, from Pompton Plains, N.J., with C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5, was gravely injured in a patrol Sept. 22, 2004. Two years later, he's back on his tank and back in Iraq.

"My first day I got up out of the hospital bed, I told my wife that once I get healthy my goal was to come back here," Sturla said.

Sturla was the lead tank in a convoy of 23 vehicles outside Husayba, Iraq, when his tank came across a small band of insurgents. The convoy was ambushed, and Sturla's tank was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade through the tank commander's hatch.

"The RPG hit the back of the TC's hatch, penetrating, going through the TC's hatch, and exploding down into the loader's hatch into the turret," he said.

The effects were devastating. The loader was killed instantly from the blast, communications were cut off, the gun-turret lost power and Sturla was critically wounded by the blast, he said.

"From the blast, it pretty much took the good portion of my left tricep and degloving of the right hand," Sturla said, describing his injuries.

Basically, Sturla's flesh in his right had was stripped off, and his upper left arm was torn away.

"It got blown off, the whole back of my arm got blown off, broke the bones," he said.

Sturla was pulled onto the turret, where his gunner, platoon commander and corpsman dressed his wounds the best they could. Sturla suffered burns from his fingers to his shoulder on his left arm, in some cases to the bone, and more severe burning on his right hand.

Marines managed to get Sturla onto a Blackhawk helicopter, and he was airlifted to Baghdad. From there he eventually made it to the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., where he received good treatment, he said.

"The staff over there took care of me real well," he said.

Sturla underwent 26 operations and surgeries to fix his injuries. The major surgery was the recreation of his triceps using the latissimus dorsi muscle out of his back. It's the long muscle that runs on the back. It's the "pull-up" muscle, only now, it was being moved from his back to his arm.

He also received skin grafts for his burns, and a skin flap to cover the new muscle, Sturla said.

During his operations, Sturla was on a limited duty status until September 2005, and went to therapy twice a day, five times a week, for eight months. He had physical therapy in the morning and occupational therapy in the afternoons. The therapy consisted of scar massage therapy to get feeling back into his muscles, stretch therapy to improve his arm's range of movement and light-weight lifting to improve his strength, Sturla said.

It was May 2006 that Sturla became healthy enough to pass his physical fitness test and reattach to 2nd Tank Battalion on Camp Lejeune, N.C., he said.

"They gave me an option to get a waiver for pull-ups 'cause obviously it was a lot; was pretty difficult to do pull-ups," he added.

Sturla said he opted to "just bust my ass" instead of waiting for the reams of paperwork that would have followed for his waiver.

In June 2006, Sturla was able to help boost the morale of other wounded Marines. He was recruited by an officer of Wounded Warriors at the time to help out with the Camp Lejeune center, he said.

Sturla was asked to "help the wounded Marines coming back and see what we could do to make it better for them," even while he was enduring his own rehabilitation, he said. For him, it was a matter of helping Marines get as "healthy as possible."

Improved morale is just the thing to keep an injured Marine pressing onward, and Marines should always be there to support their brothers, Sturla said.

"There's a lot of single Marines that live in the barracks," he explained. "They need support from other Marines to continue what they're doing, and give them the strength, the encouragement to press on, and if that's what they want to do is come back over here then, you know, support them."

Sturla thanks his wife for her encouragement and guidance. He barely remembers what he went through in the hospital, but one thing he does remember is his wife was always there, he said.

"She actually slept in a chair besides my bed the entire time I was there," he said. "She is a good woman. She's awesome. Wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have been able to have done it without her. She supported me when I was down emotionally. She was there to encourage me. She's supported me 100 percent ever since."

It was in September 2006 that Sturla reached his goal. He was deployed to Iraq with C Company.

"He said he had unfinished business," said Sgt. Ian A. Murray, a 22-year-old tanker from Dunfries, Va., who regularly works with Sturla.

"He's a pretty hard worker, and he doesn't really sit back and let everyone else do all the work," Murray said. "He'll pitch in. He'll help us if we need help. He's a good guy to work for."

Sturla now works as the master gunner for C Company, and platoon sergeant for Headquarters Platoon. He motivates his Marines, ensures the tanks are working smoothly and still lends a hand on missions, said 1st Lt. Erik A. Brandriff, the 27-year-old C Company executive officer from La Crescenta, Calif.

"He has been a pleasure to work with: just the most motivated staff sergeants I've ever seen," Brandriff said.

One thing that Sturla never does is let his injuries interfere with his work. He went through a lot to get back to Iraq, and won't let anything slow him down now.

"Every once and a while he'll hit his hand wrong and then just be like 'ow' and then just get right back on it," Murray said. "It doesn't slow him down that much."

"If you didn't know what had happened to him, you wouldn't have known he had any injuries," Brandriff said. "That's just the way he works and holds himself to a pretty high standard."

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