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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Explosion kills Whidbey sailor serving in Iraq 11/7/07 • Whidbey-based sailor killed in Iraq 11/6/07   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, September 7, 2007 Whidbey sailor slowly recovering By Jim Haley, Herald Writer David Hawxhurst was sitting in what turned out to be the lucky seat of the heavy armored vehicle. High explosives went off under it, sending the big machine reeling 60 feet. When the smoke cleared, other U.S. troops found two of Hawxhurst's companions dead. They had been sitting elsewhere in the vehicle. Hawxhurst was severely injured. "Maybe God was on my side," the Navy 1st class petty officer said Thursday from his hospital bed in Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland. After several surgeries, Hawxhurst was scheduled to leave the hospital today and head by ambulance for a rehabilitation center in New Jersey. He was one of three Whidbey Island Naval Air Station sailors caught in the July 17 explosion that ripped the armored vehicle apart. All three were assigned to the naval facility's highly-decorated Explosive Ordnance Detachment Mobile Unit 11, which consists of about 160 sailors. Members of the unit deploy in groups of nine or 10. Their job is to disable explosives and deactivate roadside bombs. Killed in the blast were bomb disposal experts Chief Petty Officer Patrick L. Wade, 38, and Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey L. Chaney, 35. The deaths and Hawxhurst's injuries came a little more than three months after the naval station was stunned by the killing in Iraq of three other sailors from the same bomb disposal unit. Hawxhurst's vehicle was traveling on a highway near the town of Samarra in Salah Ad Din province, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the Defense Department said. The wounded sailor's father, Edwin Hawxhurst of Kirkland, said that top Navy brass were at his son's bedside recently to award him a Bronze Star with valor. He praised the medical treatment his son received. "David is doing well. He was pretty severely banged up, as you can imagine," the elder Hawxhurst said. This was David Hawxhurst's second deployment to Iraq, and the second Bronze Star he's received. He also received a Purple Heart. "I told him I don't want any more of that," Edwin Hawxhurst said. His son has been in the service 15 years, and likely will stay in the military after he fully recovers. He had surgeries on his back, jaw and left leg. "David doesn't remember too much about what happened, except calling me and his wife" from a military hospital in Iraq, Edwin Hawxhurst said. His wife, Valerie, and his father were quickly sent to Bethesda by the military to be by David Hawxhurst's bedside. The elder Hawxhurst said he returned for a second trip to be with his son during his surgeries. "The Navy here at Whidbey sent one of their people to take care of her and to take care of me while we were there," Edwin Hawxhurst said. Born in Cincinnati, David Hawxhurst graduated from high school in Japan. He and his wife own a home in the Oak Harbor area, but it's unlikely they will return to live there, Edwin Hawxhurst said. He believes his son will take a job with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in New Jersey, which is not too far from where his wife's family lives, Edwin Hawxhurst said. How long recovery will take is unknown, David Hawxhurst said. It was just luck that his son was sitting where he was in the vehicle, Edwin Hawxhurst said. The men frequently rotate positions. "I'm very thankful of his survival," Edwin Hawxhurst said. "I'm enough of a religious guy to believe there's a reason for it." Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com

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