Bomb exploded at soldiers feet in Iraq, but he makes it through

<p>Sgt. First Class Joseph Mosner woke up in the United States after a roadside bomb in Iraq exploded and burned his face.</p><p>Mosner, 35, will undergo a year of at least five cosmetic surgeries to fix the damage of the injury, but last week he was reunited with his family in LaGrange, where his wife, Rhonda Baxter, is from.</p><p>On the morning of Dec. 16 on the south side of Baghdad, Mosners tank crew set up patrol at an abandoned house.</p><p>He decided to take his troops to patrol nearby Highway 10, which is notorious for roadside bombs. As Mosner, his driver and gunner left the tank to tell another crew they were leaving, a bomb exploded at their feet.</p><p>We had been there the whole time, Mosner said. We dont know when or how the bomb got to the house.</p><p>He stayed conscious and went to check on the rest of his crew. Then his gunner sat him down by the house to tell him he was wounded.</p><p>Mosner had two holes in his head and had to hold his flesh onto his skull. Another bomb that didnt go off was found nearby.</p><p>If they would have both exploded, we would have been dead. They told us we werent supposed to live, Mosner said.</p><p>Doctors put Mosner in an induced coma, and the next thing he remembers is waking up at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, he had traveled from Iraq to Germany to America.</p><p>When I walked into the hospital I saw him and didnt recognize him, Baxter said. I said, Thats not my husband.</p><p>She eventually came to accept the accident and now is her husbands chief caregiver.</p><p>Mosner said he feels lucky to have survived and to be reunited with his family.</p><p>His driver, a 20-year-old, still is at the hospital in Washington.</p><p>It felt good coming home, he said. The hospital got on my nerves. Im doing good. Im not even on any pain medication. Everything I have is cosmetic now.</p><p>Mosner and his family returned to his base at Fort Riley, Kan., on Friday. Hes on leave but not discharged. He plans to serve about four more years.</p><p>Thats his job, so that we could be free, Baxter said.</p>