Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

When “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau decided his character “B.D.” would lose his leg in combat in Iraq, he didn’t know how that loss would affect real troops.

Or how many of those troops would come to call him “friend.”

He chose B.D. — a character once known for never removing the football helmet he had worn since the strip began in 1970 — because he was “available.”

“It was at a time when U.S. troops were taking heavy casualties,” Trudeau said in an e-mail interview, “and I wanted the strip to reflect the sacrifices that our countrymen were making.”

It did more than that: It reflected the dark humor, the anger and the sentiment every wounded service member voices — “it could have been worse” — even as they face fractured lives. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, so does the tally of troops suffering grievous wounds. As of June 1, said Army Medical Command spokesman Jaime Cavazos, 432 service members had lost at least one limb.

After losing limbs, eyes or goals they’ve held since childhood, the troops say Trudeau captured their souls, mapped them out in comic strips, and helped Americans understand how it feels to be deserted by friends, or to not want to be a burden, or to gain a moment of hope.

His visits to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., inspired some of that hope.

“He’s such a boost of morale for soldiers,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Metzdorf, who spent seven months at Walter Reed. “He’d visit, and then you’d see some comment a soldier made show up in his comic strip.”

Metzdorf, a career counselor for 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, N.C., lost his right leg above the knee to a roadside bomb in Iraq in January 2004. Three soldiers died that day, and three were wounded.

“My wife thought I was thinking about her,” Metzdorf said, laughing. “No, I was really thinking about how much blood I could lose in a five-minute period.”

Trudeau drew as the patients at Walter Reed suffered through physical therapy, Metzdorf said.

“He asked us to tell him our stories,” Metzdorf said. “He’s found a way to do his own therapy for us.”

Staff Sgt. Jason Pepper, who was medically retired Jan. 1, spent almost two years at Walter Reed and still keeps in touch with Trudeau.

“He’s a really great guy — the kind you could kick back with and have a barbecue,” Pepper said from his home in Clarksville, Tenn. “He spent numerous hours with the soldiers, and everything in his book is real.”

Pepper lost both eyes in May 2004. As a rocket-propelled grenade headed toward his team leader and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon gunner, Pepper pushed the two out of the way. But it wasn’t the RPG that hit him — it was the improvised explosive device hidden nearby.

The explosion incinerated his left hand. He has two glass eyes. A piece of shrapnel still rests on his brain. Doctors are afraid they’ll do more damage if they try to remove it, Pepper said, and the metal serves as a reminder that he might not live through the morning.

In early June 2004, Trudeau asked Pepper whether he could “do something special” for him.

Soon, a comic appeared.

“See that guy in the other wheelchair?” B.D. says. “His name is Sgt. Jason Pepper.”

“Sgt. Pepper?” Zonker replies. “For real?”

“Yup,” B.D. says, “and he is, in fact, guaranteed to raise a smile.”