Soldier welcomed home as a hero

SOUTH PRAIRIE — While he was recovering from losing his arm in fighting in Iraq, Army Spc. Kris Atherton worried about how he’d be able to pick up the baby daughter he’d never held.

With practice, it’s becoming more natural.

When he arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Thursday, Atherton kneeled down to his daughter’s stroller. Six-month-old Mikiah grabbed his right hand and cooed, while Atherton’s other arm, a prosthetic, hung at his side.

"I’ve got a lot of things I want to teach her," he told The News Tribune of Tacoma. "A lot of things I want to do with my family."

Atherton, 24, lost most of his left arm in an enemy attack outside Baghdad last summer. Now back home in this east Pierce County town with his wife, Heather, and their daughter, he finds himself a hero.

At the airport, he was met by friends and family, and by pipers from the Tacoma Fire Department Honor Guard. On Friday, the Tacoma Red Cross awarded him the first Marvin Klegman Memorial Award, named for an 11-year-old Tacoma boy who died saving another child in the 1949 earthquake.

During his two weeks of leave, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Tacoma and the South Prairie Cares Committee will honor Atherton with a parade and party Nov. 29.

"Some guys fold, and some guys don’t," said Terry Veltkamp, Atherton’s woodshop teacher from White River High School.

On the day Atherton lost his arm in the desert, he maneuvered his Humvee to safety, preserving the lives of several companions while he was in intense pain and bleeding profusely. His severed arm lay in his lap.

"I knew I had a ticket home," he said. "I wanted to make it back to the base to claim that ticket."

Atherton said he "grew up" in the Army. At 19, he’d been rooming with his older brother, Kevin, in Auburn, and was making good money at a Tacoma cardboard plant. But he felt something was missing.

He signed up with the Army, he said, because it stresses core values such as selfless service, respect, honor and loyalty.

"I wanted all of those, and I wanted to get some schooling," he said.

His brother and mother visited him after his 15 weeks of basic and advanced training.

"He was a completely different person," said Cindy Hrinchak, his mother. "We were amazed."

"They saw me all skinny and doing ‘Yes, Ma’am’ ‘Yes, Sir,’ totally changed," Atherton said. "I had quit smoking, stopped drinking."

Atherton’s unit, Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, was deployed from Fort Riley, Kan., early in March and was among the first to cross the Euphrates River.

His tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Inside, he gave first aid to a radio operator who had caught some shrapnel in his face and down his side.

On July 26, while his tank was under repair, he volunteered for an early morning mission that had him driving a Humvee, transporting a prisoner.

Atherton led a two-vehicle convoy. An explosion went off next to the driver’s door.

"The next thing I knew, my left arm was in my lap," he said.

With four flattened tires, the Humvee was a lumbering, easy target.

With his wound gushing blood, he fought the pain to turn the vehicle around and head back toward base. The other Humvee followed.

A lieutenant asked him to stop so he could apply pressure to the wound. Atherton refused. He later told his mother that he realized, "We stop, we’re dead."

It took 20 minutes to get back to the base, where Atherton stopped at the gates and let the prisoner out, following security protocols. He recalls carrying his left arm in his right hand into the operating room.

One main artery was still connected, and that might have kept him from bleeding to death. Surgeons amputated the arm just above the elbow.

Atherton had surgeries in Kuwait and Germany before heading to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he received a Purple Heart, more surgery and a prosthetic arm.