Operation Proper Exit Provides Closure to Disabled Veterans

From the Fort Gordon Signal:

A group of eight wounded warriors have returned to the combat zone in Iraq where they were injured, to find a sense of closure.

This second group of “Operation Proper Exit” will spend a week in Iraq, thanks to the Troops First Foundation and the USO. In June, six amputee combat veterans went back to Iraq as part of “Proper Exit” and visited seven military installations.

This week the veterans are also traveling to many of the places where they received injuries, to see firsthand what progress their sacrifices and those of their comrades have brought to Iraq....

Here's an example of the caliber of veteran this program has attracted:

[Ethan] Payton said he understands the need to properly exit the battlefield.

Payton in 2004 was attached to the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad when he lost his left arm to a rocketpropelled grenade blast.

After convalescing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Payton could not get Iraq out of his mind. He spent two summers in Morocco studying Arabic.

In spring 2009, he graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies, paid for by the GI Bill and the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program. When the call came to be part of the second Operation Proper Exit, he did not hesitate.... Payton is planning a civilian career in the Arab-speaking world, either in North Africa or the Middle East.