Honor, support flow to member’s son severely injured in Iraq

By SHERRY HALBROOK
When PEF member Tom Yarosh and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Sherry Yarosh’s son Rick went to Iraq, their co-workers at the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance office in Glendale rallied around them, sending the soldier cards and small things to make the harsh life there more bearable.

When the young soldier was very seriously injured September 1, 2006, by an improvised explosive device (IED), he and his family were embraced by their entire community of Windsor in Broome County.
Division 399 and the PEF Veterans’ Committee chair Richard Fletcher have led PEF’s efforts on behalf of the family.

“They are a really good group. Everybody in this facility has been so supportive,” Tom Yarosh said of his co-workers. “The whole community of Windsor has been great.”

His son is doing well, Yarosh said, and “his morale is really good.”

That’s saying a great deal when you consider how badly he was hurt and how much he is trying to overcome.

Riding in the machine gun turret of a Bradley armored vehicle when it struck the IED, Yarosh suffered a shattered right leg and severed artery. He was severely burned over all of his body, except his back and chest. His ears and nose were burned off. Although he was able to extinguish the fire by rolling into a canal, he caught cholera and a skin fungus from the polluted water.

The young man, who is now just 25, has undergone dozens of surgeries and spent a year receiving intensive rehabilitative therapy at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

“He was in the intensive care unit for four months. In fact, it was three months before he even realized his right leg was gone (amputated just below the knee),” Tom Yarosh said. The soldier is struggling to regain some use of his badly burned hands.

His mother has remained in Texas with him, the two returning to Windsor for visits.

“They were here for a while in September and October and they are coming back for Thanksgiving,” Tom Yarosh said.

The people of Windsor have used every visit as an opportunity to honor their hometown hero. On September 12, he was met at the airport in Binghamton by an American Legion motorcycle unit that escorted him home as hundreds of residents lined the streets and waved flags to welcome him back.

Three days later Rick was grand marshal of the town’s bicentennial parade.

Although he is still severely scarred and disfigured, Rick does not try to hide from public view.
“He wants people to get used to seeing people who have been injured or who have disabilities,” Tom Yarosh said of his son.

His courage has sparked an outpouring of generosity. A Long Island teenager, whose family spends summers in Windsor, raised more than $34,000 for Yarosh. The community held a spaghetti dinner and Chinese auction to benefit the injured soldier.

And PEF Division 399 members played in a baseball tournament to benefit the Yarosh family.

“They did all these things without even telling us about it,” Tom Yarosh said. “I have put every penny they’ve raised into a special account for Rick. He told me, ‘Dad, you know I don’t have any money.’ But I told him this money is there for him when he needs it. That was a relief for him.”

Even more than the money, the love and support of their co-workers and the community have comforted and lifted the spirits of the entire family, Tom Yarosh said.

“People have done some pretty inspirational things. One unit at work sent us a card every week for more than a year, and everyone in that unit signed those cards. One of the supervisors who went to Texas, took time to go to San Antonio and visit Rick. We have felt a constant flow of support and prayers.