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Marine First Lieutenant F. James Hutchinson Jr. ’00, wounded in combat on the outskirts of Nasiriyah, Iraq, March 27, received a visit from President Bush at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., April 11. The president awarded Hutchinson the Purple Heart.
Hutchinson, a platoon commander in the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was wounded as he and others destroyed crates filled with rocket-propelled grenades, according to the Associated Press. A grenade or mortar landed near the Humvee that Hutchinson was using for cover.
Hutchinson was interviewed at the Naval hospital April 11 by reporter Susan Dentzer of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
“All I remember, there was a big loud explosion, a big loud bang, and I’m flying through the air. I hit the ground, did a couple somersaults, and I got up real quick and just started running,” Hutchinson said. “I was bleeding quite a lot, and at that point I turned command of the platoon back to my gunner sergeant, who was hit in the back, but was still going. I had to have somebody drag me because I was in and out of consciousness.”
The AP said about 30 Marines with his platoon were wounded. No one was killed. Hutchinson doesn’t remember being in an Army hospital in Kuwait City. He was in shock for nearly two days and underwent surgery. He was taken to another hospital in Germany, where he had more surgery, then flown to the Naval Medical Center.
“You just live with the fact that you’re here, you got hit, and basically all you can do is just pray that your Marines are okay,” he told the NewsHour. “Because when it all comes down to it, they’re the guys that protect you, to your left and to your right. So, I do wish I was out there still with them.”
Hutchinson, whose Lafayette major was economics and business, is expected to be able to join his family in New Jersey soon and to recover fully from his wounds.
“I’ll have lots of scar tissue that will have to break up, but they say I’ll be able to run again and do all that stuff — be active — which is great news for me, because I’m a very active person,” he said.