Family to visit injured Marine in D.C.

Marine Cpl. Steven Kiernan of Petaluma, critically wounded Sunday in Iraq, may be reunited with his parents today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Kiernan, 20, who lost his left foot and right leg below the knee in a bomb blast on Sunday in Fallujah, was scheduled to be flown today from a U.S military hospital in Germany to Walter Reed, the facility that treats wartime amputees, according to the Marine's mother, Kim Petersen of Petaluma.

Petersen said she and her ex-husband, Jim Kiernan, and his father were expecting to fly to Washington on Monday night or this morning, courtesy of the Marine Corps.

"They want us there when he gets there," Petersen said.

Her son is scheduled to leave Germany this morning, and as soon as it is confirmed the Marine Corps will tell her when to go, Petersen said.

As well-wishing telephone calls from friends and strangers poured in Monday, Petersen said she struggled to put the rush of events in perspective.

"It's a shock," she said. "It doesn't seem real. Like it's a bad dream."

A brief phone conversation with her son Monday morning helped ground her, she said. Steven sounded groggy and expressed more concern about his wounded buddy than he did for himself, she said.

Petersen said she got no details on her son's condition but was relieved to hear that his breathing tube had been removed and that he was able to travel.

"He's the kind of kid who's going to be OK," Petersen said, recalling her son's steadfast nature, including his determination to join the Marines at age 17.

A former Sonoma County serviceman, whose wounds three and a half years ago were similar to Kiernan's, said Monday the younger warrior is in good hands and can look forward to an active life as a double amputee.

"This Marine has nothing to worry about," said Dan Nevins, a former California National Guard staff sergeant who lost his left leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004.

In January, after enduring three years of relentless pain from his blast-damaged right leg, Nevins, who now lives in Jacksonville, Fla., returned to Walter Reed and had it, too, amputated below the knee.

Nevins, 35, said he mourned the loss of his legs but has returned to an active life, including long-distance bicycling, golf and driving a car with no adaptive devices.

Combat veterans get the most advanced prosthetics available from the government at no cost, Nevins said. "Eventually, they'll feel like they're part of you," he said. "There's nothing you can't do."

Petersen received word of her son's injury Sunday morning, then heard Monday from the Marines about the family members' trip to Washington. The Marine Corps is paying their airfare and living expenses for three weeks at a house on or near the Walter Reed campus.

"You feel helpless because you can't do anything from here," Petersen said.

Petersen said she learned that her son was on a foot patrol in Fallujah when an explosive, located behind a garbage bin 25 feet away, was triggered remotely. Kiernan sustained shrapnel wounds to his backside, in addition to the loss of a foot and a leg.

Another Marine sustained a broken left arm in the blast, she said.

Nevins, who went to Iraq with the National Guard's Santa Rosa-based 579th Engineer Battalion, was wounded by a roadside bomb that sent a 155-millimeter artillery shell through the bottom of his armored Humvee on Nov. 10, 2004 near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Hidden bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, have accounted for 1,778 U.S. fatalities, or 44 percent of the 4,071 American troops killed since the Iraq war began in March, 2003, according to iCasualties.org, a Web site that tracks war casualties.

The organization says that 29,911 American troops have been wounded in Iraq.

Talking to her son Monday morning "made it seem more real," Petersen said.

She recalled Kiernan's determination, from an early age, to join the Marines. "I tried to talk him out of it, believe me," she said.

But when his intention became obvious, Petersen said she signed documents allowing him to join at age 17 in 2005. Finishing his Petaluma High School requirements early, Kiernan completed boot camp in time to participate in the June, 2005 graduation.

His request to wear his Marine uniform at graduation caused a well-publicized controversy, for which Kiernan eventually apologized to then-Principal Mike Simpson. Kiernan wore the uniform under his graduation gown.

Simpson, now superintendent at the Two Rock school district near Petaluma, gave Kiernan's family his regards on Monday.

Petersen said she was deluged with offers of help that buoyed her, but for which she had no answer.

"I don't even know what I need help with yet," she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.