Wounded warrior’s battle shifts from Iraq to comeback

By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH

The Kansas City Star


ATCHISON, Kan. | The stares bother him the most.

People see the red flesh that creeps along his cheekbone and jaw. The dangling left arm with permanent nerve damage. The wheelchair. The stump where his lower left leg was.

“It’s what I gave for Iraq,” Army Spc. Scott Stephenson, 23, says with a shrug, and then he’s quiet for a moment.

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What he hasn’t told them was how scared he felt when he first woke up at Brooke. He hesitates, lowering his voice.

“I was afraid … to look down, you know. … I wanted to know … if my piece was still attached.”

He waits a moment, waits for his audience to understand what he has said.

And then he drops his punch line: “It’s my WMD!” he yells, and laughs along with his parents and brother and sister.

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