A veteran's tale from today's war

Call Derrick Glisan master of the understatement.

During a call home while fighting in Iraq in December 2004, Glisan mentioned that 'some guys got injured' when a car bomb exploded as their patrol vehicles drove past. What Glisan failed to say was that 'some guys' included himself when the car's axle crashed through the windshield of a military Humvee.

'They were worried enough,' Glisan, now 30, said of his parents. 'When my dad found out, he wasn't real happy with that. He said, 'Let's not let that happen again.' '

Just weeks after receiving stitches in his forehead because of shattered glass, Glisan received a second Purple Heart.

Glisan, a 13-year member of the Galva National Guard who now is out of the military, went back on patrol after the initial injury. He returned to living out of a Tarmia police station and patrolling for insurgents.

In January 2005, Glisan suffered a gunshot wound.

'It was late at night, and we were doing a last patrol through the city,' Glisan said. 'We were going down the main road, which was lined with buildings for probably 1,000 yards where there was no exit in either direction. We got about three-quarters of the way down that and they lit up our convoy with machine guns and missiles.'

Glisan was driving the second Humvee in a line of three. He moved to the front when the lead vehicle became disabled. Glisan was shot in the leg and a medic was shot in the arm.

'It went in right next to the shin and came out behind my kneecap,' Glisan said. 'I continued driving until we got back. It seemed like a long time, but it was probably 10-15 minutes before we got back.'

Glisan was flown back to a hospital in Baghdad. A knot remains in his calf where muscle was damaged, but after several weeks of physical therapy he was moving well.

He remained in the Persian Gulf until finally coming home from Kuwait in spring of 2005.

Glisan's war medals remain tucked out of view in his Galva home, along with the bullet that pierced his leg.

'I guess I still felt pretty lucky,' Glisan said of his injuries. 'Some of the things we'd done and seen, I felt lucky that was it. It was minor compared to some other people.'

While he was at war, Glisan's daughters - Alexandria, 8, and Arika, 7 - were watched over by his sister and brother-in-law, Darci and Mike Gustafson, who moved into his home to allow the girls to stay in the same school. Glisan and his ex-wife share custody.

Glisan's status as a veteran led to a job as an operator of the Mississippi River's Lock and Dam No. 16 in Muscatine, Iowa. He also is a volunteer firefighter in his hometown.

Glisan followed a family tradition of serving the United States, started by grandfather Donald (World War II) and father Wayne (Vietnam).

The former four-sport athlete at Galva, who qualified for the state wrestling finals at 135 pounds as a high school senior, is grateful for the discipline he developed through basic training and later in combat.

'I enjoyed the whole experience,' Glisan said. 'Really, it answers a lot of personal questions: What will I do if …? When it comes down to it, can you make the decision?'