Part 5: Soldier’s charitable spirit survives

A promotion and a gala
During this time, Deierlein learned that his promotion from captain to major had finally come through. He had been seeking this advancement since his abrupt return to Army life.

Back in New York, Deierlein’s friends and colleagues followed through on a plan they hatched before Deierlein got shot. They threw a huge benefit for the charity he started in Iraq, now dubbed the Tom Deierlein Foundation. The foundation is seeking nonprofit status. 

The gala took place in November 2006 at the Forbes Galleries and raised more than $22,000 to purchase supplies for children and families in Iraq. Deierlein is shipping the items to designated U.S. Army soldiers who have agreed to carry on the distribution work in the poorest areas of Baghdad.

Deierlein couldn’t attend the benefit in November, but his wife, mother and other family members made it. Hiwot spoke at the event, and her husband sent along a pre-recorded speech.

“I know that this is a very controversial war and people have a lot of different opinions on it,” Deierlein told the crowd in New York from his hospital bed. “But … you understand that there are still people that are in need … and that’s really what we’re here for tonight. It’s not saying anything about politics. It’s not saying anything about strategy. It’s really just reaching out to some of the most desperate and needy children in this world.”

First steps
At Christmastime, a little more than three months after his arrival at Walter Reed, Deierlein took his first halting steps while being spotted by a hospital staffer. He approached his physical therapy aggressively, routinely adding hours of exercise to the regimens his doctors and therapists assigned him.

Click to see Tom Deierlein take his first steps at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

In February of this year he transferred to the veterans’ hospital in Tampa, which had a specialized rehabilitation program for people with spinal-cord injuries. He arrived in a wheelchair, but before long he was walking on his own without the help of a walker or a cane.

By late April, his pace was brisk, and nothing looked at all amiss with the 6-foot-3 executive-turned-soldier. In just a few days Deierlein would walk out of this hospital for good.

Chronic pain plagued him, though. He blasted ahead with his exercises, but it hurt.

“C’mon! C’mon! Please!” he shouted at a NuStep machine as he tried to maintain a pace of nearly 100 steps a minute for half an hour.

Deierlein reached his goal on the machine, but he was adjusting to the idea that not every battle could be won. The permanence of the injuries caused by the sniper’s bullet still astonished him on a regular basis.

Other losses caused a different kind of pain. His wife Hiwot had recently decided to end their marriage.

“I’ve filed for divorce,” he said. “I’ve filed, but it wasn’t my decision. Just within the past few weeks, she let me know.

“She was unhappy. I didn’t really know how unhappy. … A lot can change in a year and a half.”

Hiwot Taddesse did not did not respond to requests for an interview.

Deierlein, now 39, was rewiring in response to yet another drastic change in the direction of his entire life. As usual, he struggled to steer the conversation in a positive direction. He said he still believes in love and romance, and he hopes to have children someday. (“That still works,” he said with a wry smile.) He would just have to resume his life in New York by himself.

“It’s really going to be like starting over now,” he said.

Traveling again
As his release from the Tampa rehab program approached, Deierlein booked a demanding travel schedule for himself. He planned to spend a single night in Atlanta, where he would hire a moving company to get his things out of Hiwot’s condo.

After that, he would fly to Fort Bragg, N.C., to welcome the soldiers from his civil affairs company. They were coming home after their yearlong tour of duty in Iraq.

Then he would head to New York to find a new apartment, then to Club Med in the Caribbean for a week, then back to New York before a trip to Las Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party. Never mind that sitting was excruciating — he figured he’d cope with the long flights by taking pain medicine and standing as much as the flight attendants would let him.

He also was cooking up all sorts of long-term plans. He was talking about traveling to China. He was eager to start running again. He was researching how he could resume a favorite activity — scuba diving — while wearing a colostomy bag. And when he spotted a photo of Mount Rainier, he blurted out, “I wonder if I should make it a goal to climb that again.”

MORE FROM CHARITY BEGINS AT WAR

Charity Begins at War Section Front

Part 1: From executive suite to Baghdad Journal: Called back to active duty — ‘No joke’ Day 2: Minimal training for a huge task Journal: Readying for ‘very dangerous job’ Part 3: Venturing ‘outside the wire’ Journal: ‘ThunderCat6’ arrives in Baghdad Part 4: It all comes back to garbage Journal: Goodbye Baghdad; hello bed rest Part 5: Charitable spirit survives Journal: A new foundation Charity Begins at War Section Front   Add Charity Begins at War headlines to your news reader: