By:Jeff Lipton
Jennifer Riddle, an Army Signal Corps staff sergeant, was sent on a mission with a convoy to repair downed communication lines on Tuesday, Jan. 4, when her Humvee broke down. The convoy apparently came under enemy fire, and Riddle was hurrying to make repairs to the vehicle when her hand got caught in the vehicle's generator.
"Her Humvee broke down and she got out to repair it," Riddle's mother, Marlene, said in a phone interview from her home on Hewlett Parkway last Thursday. "Her hand was all mashed up."
Riddle was immediately flown to Landstuhl, Germany, where doctors performed the first two of several surgeries on her mangled right hand. Doctors inserted artificial knuckles in the hand and performed a skin graft, her mother said. Riddle will be flown to a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where she will undergo further surgery and skin grafts, followed by rehabilitation, which could last at least a year.
Doctors believe that she will regain at least 75 percent use of her hand, her mother said. "She may not get back the use of one of her fingers," her mother said. "They also had to fix the palm of her hand, which was all torn up.
"She'll have to learn to be a lefty," her mother joked, relieved that her daughter was not more seriously injured.
Marlene Riddle said she found out about her daughter's injury from the captain of her unit in Iraq, Robbie Seal, who called her shortly after the incident. "He told me that when he gives Jennifer a job, he knows it will get done," she said.
Jennifer is a member of the Army's 13th Signal Corps of the 1st Cavalry Division, with headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas. She was responsible for communications between the Army's front lines and rear units, and often traveled from one end of Baghdad to the other in a Humvee.
In an e-mail to Marlene, Captain Seal wrote, "She is going to be fine, and now she is out of harm's way. Jennifer is a great soldier and leader, and she will be missed here in Bravo Company. For just about every mission you have read about in the papers, she has led one of the communications teams supporting it."
Riddle and 10 other soldiers from the Five Towns who are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas were recently named the Nassau Herald's 2004 People of the Year for the their bravery and sacrifice.
Speaking to her daughter in her hospital bed in Germany by phone last Wednesday morning, Marlene was relieved to find out she was going to be all right. "She's doing better," she said.
Jennifer, a Hewlett High School alumna, has served in the Army for about 12 years. Her parents, Marlene and Dennis, both war veterans, were married in Japan and worked at a military hospital. Their daughter always wanted to be in the Army, especially after seeing photos of her parents in uniform.
Marlene said that her daughter was most upset about the possibility that she would not being able to return to the Army because of her injury. But Army officials have assured her that if she cannot return, she can become an Army instructor. "She absolutely loves the service," her mother said.
"We're very, very proud of her," she added. "We're just glad that 99 percent of her body is still intact."
Marlene said that her daughter, who was in Iraq for close to a year, was scheduled to come home next month.
The Rev. Elisabeth Aurand, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation in Cedarhurst, where Riddle's family has been members since Jennifer was 3, said that when church members received news of her injury, "The first thing we did here was put into effect a prayer circle. We know the family. Jennifer is indefatigable. We know Jennifer to bear difficulties with grace."
Robert O'Brien, commander of the Veterans of Foreign War-John J. Oliveri Post 1582 in Inwood, where Riddle is a member, called her a "professional soldier. She's been [to Iraq] three times. She's a career soldier."
Riddle's mother said that even though her daughter has been in the armed forces for 12 years, she still worries constantly about her. She stays glued to the TV, watching coverage of the day's events in Iraq. "I'm just glad she came home," she said. "At least she didn't come home in a box."
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