"I Saw A Ghost"

When he saw the truck just in front of him disappear in a fiery blast, the man they called “Band Aid” knew what he had to do.

It was May 2004 on a road outside Fallujah, Iraq.  Three of Band-Aid’s comrades had just been injured when an IED, hung in a tree, exploded near the truck they were riding in.

“I triaged all three.  I treated them and got them to the helicopter for evacuation,” recalled Timothy Bredberg, Jr. also known as Band Aid.

“I myself rode with them to help out.”

Bredberg rode with his wounded comrades all the back to Baghdad.  It wasn’t until he had returned to his front line unit that word came over the radio . . . all three of his comrades had died.

“What did I do wrong,” thought Band Aid.

Bredberg stayed in Iraq eventually suffering shrapnel injuries in the thigh and knee from a mortar attack that claimed the life of his best friend in July of 2005.

Returning home, Bredberg’s injuries made it impossible for him to resume his career as a cabinet designer and builder.  He tried working as an optician but the demands of his injuries caused him to lose that job as well.

His family noticed how he had changed, his sisters stopped talking to him and his mom told him that “he wasn’t the same person” as he was before his injuries.

“I almost didn’t come to the Road to Recovery Conference,” he said.  “I am very uncomfortable in social groups but I thought that I could go to every doctor in the world but they wouldn’t know what I had been through like these guys would,” he says.

“I also wanted to give my wife a break, she has been caring for me and my 19 month old child continually,” he continued.

Band Aid was sitting in the opening session of the 2007 Road to Recovery Conference listening to the Coalition’s national spokespersons answer questions from the audience.

A woman stood up and told the story of her son who was severely wounded in Iraq and was attending the conference.  His name was Rory Dunn.

Band Aid couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

“I lost it, I couldn’t handle it,” he thought immediately. He stood up and asked for the microphone.

“I was the medic who worked on you in Iraq,” Bredberg announced to the stunned room.  “They told me you were dead.”

The two comrades made their way across the now hushed ballroom to reunite for the first time since Bredberg escorted Dunn off the chopper in Baghdad.  They met in the back of the room in a tearful embrace while the wounded heroes in the room gave a ringing round of applause.

“I had to grab him.  It was like I had seen a ghost,” said Band Aid.

For the rest of the Conference, Bredberg and Dunn were able to catch up and share their stories about the fateful day where their lives were intertwined and in Bredberg’s mind, where he had lost his comrade in arms forever.

“One of the great benefits of the Road to Recovery Conference is allowing these wounded heroes the opportunity to meet and share their experiences with the men and women who know best what they are going through,” said Coalition President Roger Chapin.

“This extraordinary story defies the odds.  And, hopefully, it will go a long way toward helping “Band Aid” with the difficult transition to civilian life after his heroic service overseas,”
“I’ve been more comfortable here at the Conference than anywhere I’ve been in years,” said Bredberg.  Thank you Coalition for making a ghost in my life real,” he concluded.