David W. “Junior” Franco decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a U.S. Marine. Both men wound up serving in Iraq and, in an unfortunate case of symmetry, suffering the same serious medical problems.

 

Franco’s father, David R. Franco, was 43 when he was personally chosen by General James Amos to serve in a special unit, the Red Cell group, tasked with studying enemy tactics and making threat assessments to U.S. bases. It was during a Red Cell mission on November 5, 2005, that David R. incurred a traumatic brain injury after the Humvee he was riding in struck a roadside bomb outside Fallujah.

 

Two and a half years later, on April 24, 2008, the same thing happened to David W., only his vehicle was en route to the village of Haditha when it hit an improvised explosive device. Like his father, David W. was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

Today, the two men deal with pain, jitteriness, memory lapses and other problems on a constant basis.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

War Wounded: Father, Son Suffer Brain Injuries (by Julie Watson, Associated Press)