Wounded Hall soldier talks about fighting in Iraq

GAINESVILLE - The only soldier from Hall County wounded in Iraq says he joined the Army for some excitment - and got plenty of it while fighting in Iraq during early April.

John Risley, a member of the Army's 101st Airborne, was wounded in an ambush in Baghdad April 13.

The 1996 West Hall High School graduate says he was never afraid of dying after being wounded, and that his thoughts were with others.

"I wasn't afraid of dying myself, but I didn't want to leave my son and my wife alone and I was really worried about one of my buddies (who was more seriously wounded)," Risley said.

Risley, 25, was wounded in the face and one leg by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade.

He says he remembers the incident well.

Risley and others in his unit were at a walled-in compound in Baghdad when the grenade sailed over the wall and exploded above them, showering them with shrapnel.

"I tried to run, but I couldn't," he recalled Wednesday. "I couldn't because...I had taken a hit in the back of the thigh."

Risley says his wounds would probably have been much worse, perhaps fatal, had the grenade exploded on the ground.

Risley says the first hostility his unit encountered after entering Iraq was in the form of hit-and-run mortar attacks. He says that was frustrating because the Iraqis would fire off a round or two and then scurry away before U.S. forces to zero in on them.

Risley said he was involved in one pretty intense fire fight on the road to Baghdad and said that at times snipers were a big problem. He said they would shoot from hiding, but that heavy guns at the disposal of the 101st would usually "take them out" even though they were usually well-hidden and firing from some distance.

He is recovering at home and is to return to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st, May 28. Risley says he plans to leave the Army when his enlistment is up in September.

Risley commented during a taping of this weekend's Northeast Georgia This Week which will be broadcast on WDUN NEWS TALK 550 Sunday at 5:30 and 8:05.