Today will be a special Thanksgiving for Dean and Becky Chapman and their family.
A little more than a week ago, the Chapmans' son, Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Chapman, was struck in the head by a sniper's bullet while fighting insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq. Yet today he will sit down with them to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
"It's going to be a really good Thanksgiving," Dean Chapman said Wednesday in his rural Lawrence home.
For Ryan Chapman, Iraq seems long ago and far away.
"It's only been a week or two (since Fallujah), but it feels like months," he said.
The 22-year-old Chapman is recovering from being hit by the bullet that somehow got under his Kevlar helmet and struck the left side of his forehead. The bullet fractured his skull but did not pierce it before exiting through the side of his scalp.
The bullet's impact caused initial swelling that made Chapman look as if he had part of a baseball embedded in his head. The swelling has decreased significantly but still is noticeable behind a four-inch scar.
'Out in the open'
"I'm doing OK," he said. "I rarely take the pain medication unless I really need it."
Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Chapman sits in his Lawrence home with his father, Dean Chapman, and talks about being shot in the head during the offensive in Fallujah, Iraq. Chapman plans to spend Thanksgiving with his family.
Now home on a 42-day leave, Chapman recalled the shooting while sitting at his parent's dining room table.
On Nov. 15, after Marine and Army units launched an offensive against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Chapman was on board an armored Humvee when his unit came under sniper fire. He was standing in the Humvee's roof hatch and peering through a TOW missile launcher sight while scanning buildings for the snipers.
"We were out in the open, in the street," Chapman said. "It's kind of hard to hide a Humvee in a city, so it was a little bit unnerving. I didn't think about it much. I didn't have time."
Unfortunately, the sniper found him first.
"At first I thought I was hit in the eye because I couldn't open my eye," Chapman said. "I dropped down in the turret inside the truck and waited for the corpsman to come and get me."
Chapman, who later learned that the sniper who shot him was killed, was evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He called his parents from Germany and told them he had been hurt. He didn't tell his mother right away that he'd been shot in the head.
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"I hadn't talked to a lot of doctors yet," Chapman said. "I didn't want to tell her because she would have a bunch of questions for me and I wouldn't be able to answer them."
He did describe what happened to him, however, in a private phone conversation with his dad.
"I wasn't worried about it," Dean Chapman said. "He was talking, and he sounded good. I just had a feeling he was going to be OK.
"It was good to hear from him even though he was injured. We knew that he was at least out of (the war) for that period of time. It's better than having a chaplain come to your door to talk to you."
Several hours after arriving in Germany, Ryan Chapman found himself in front of national and international news organizations at a televised news conference.
"They came around asking for volunteers," Chapman said. "Nobody volunteered, so they started calling names."
Since returning to the states, he has been following news about events in Iraq and Fallujah.
"I see friends of mine on the news all the time, running across streets," Chapman said. "It's kind of relieving to see them and know they are all right. It's weird watching things on TV."
Ryan Chapman's neighborhood south of Lawrence was covered with messages from neighbors who know the family. Ryan was welcomed home with yellow ribbons tied to trees and a sign on U.S. Highway 59.
Fallen friends
But he also lost some friends in the Fallujah fighting. Even before the offensive to retake the city began, Marines were skirmishing with insurgents on the city's outskirts, Chapman said.
"It's kind of surreal," he said, of knowing a friend has been killed. "You think back to the last time you saw them alive. There's really nothing you can do about it, so you move on. Combat is not the time to grieve. You worry about that when you get back to your base."
Despite deaths and injuries, Chapman said morale among his fellow Marines was high, and that they wanted to get on with the Fallujah offensive.
"We were ready for it," he said. "It was more excitement than anything."
His unit was sent to Iraq in July, but he will not rejoin it until it returns from Iraq. Though the Marines were expecting a seven-month deployment, that could be extended.
Yellow ribbons
Chapman returned home Tuesday to "welcome home" signs and yellow ribbons that neighbors had placed along the streets to his house in Pleasant Grove estates south of Lawrence. Friends were waiting for him in the driveway. Tuesday night, he attended the Kansas University men's basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse, then went out for beers with friends.
"I was just looking forward to sleeping in my own bed," he said.
And Chapman said he now had a personal mission he wanted to embark on when he returned to Camp Pendleton, Calif., after his leave. He wants to find the California woman whose name is on a quilt he was given upon his return. Quilts made by civilians were being given to wounded Marines who had returned from Iraq.
"Things like this are real important," he said, as he unfolded the quilt, which bore red, white and blue squares with the U.S. flag and the words "liberty" in them. "I can't explain to you how getting this feels. She spent a lot of time on this."
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