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By LINDA KELLETT
Recorder News Staff
FORT PLAIN — It was with open arms that members of Fort Plain American Legion Post 554 and the Sons of the American Legion welcomed native son Ricky Vogel into their ranks in mid-March, conferring legion membership and a check to the U.S. Army specialist who was wounded, along with others in a vehicle in his convoy, by a roadside bomb in Baghdad in November.
Since March 6, the 2005 Fort Plain Central School graduate has been convalescing at home and undergoing therapy at the St. Johnsville Residential and Rehabilitation Center. Vogel returned to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, where he'll stay for a couple of additional weeks. "Then they'll send me back to Germany to my home unit," he said.
His mother, Beth Hogan, on Wednesday said that he probably won't back in the States until November or December.
Prior to the groups' March 14 presentation, Jim Christman, senior commander of the post, explained that the money was raised during a "wild feast" dinner back in January. Christmas said, "All of the hunters brought in specialties: venison, rabbit, whatever." Members of the Mountain Man Hunting Club also donated money toward the fund.
The proceeds from that joint venture were presented to Vogel. Christman said Vogel could use the money for "anything he needs the money for."
Vogel, who was deployed to Iraq in mid-August on a 15-month tour of duty, accepted the membership and the check with gratitude, later acknowledging the cards and other support he's received from the community. Vogel said, "I couldn't believe how many people responded to me being hurt. I want to thank everybody for everything they've done. It was overwhelming."
He said he intends to save the money.
Individual members of the veterans' groups and the Ladies' Auxiliary expressed their appreciation for his service to the country. One of the men in attendance said, "Welcome to the post, and thank you for what you're doing for America"; and a women thanked Vogel and gave him a container of homemade peanut brittle.
As he was welcomed into the fold, Vogel, who enlisted in the service nearly three years ago, gingerly exchanged handshakes.
He still has shrapnel in his hands, he said, and limited mobility in his right index finger, which at one point had six different pins.
Additionally, his left forearm has a fresh scar where the ulna shattered, and he had a broken hip. He said, "The doctors said if I wasn't in as good shape, I wouldn't have survived it as well. It was a miracle that all four of us soldiers in the truck survived. The [bomb team] looked at our truck and the blast site. They said they couldn't believe we survived."
He explained what happened on Nov. 27, the day of the attack. "We were on a routine convoy, bringing supplies from [Camp] Striker to Taji. We were the fourth of six vehicles in the convoy. We were about halfway there in an armored Humvee. I was the gunner, so I was on top," Vogel said, adding that the convoy was in the Green Zone in Baghdad at the time of the attack.
He said he remembered everything about the bombing by a roadside bomb and what followed. Vogel, a mechanic when he wasn't on convoy, said, "I was shocked. I just couldn't believe it actually happened. It wasn't the first explosion we'd been in, but it was the first with battle damage."
Getting out of the smoke-filled truck was a chief concern. He noted that smoke grenades in the vehicle were set off by the shrapnel. "I had to make sure I got out of the truck. I was the last out. I had to crawl out the top. I used my elbows to crawl out because my legs wouldn't work," he said.
Vogel also recalls being grabbed by a medic, who helped to cut his uniform off so his wounds could be tended.
Immediately after he was wounded, Vogel said he was hospitalized at
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. "It's the first hospital you go to coming from Iraq," he said.
Vogel said he's been able to keep in communication with one of his buddies who was wounded. "He's still at Walter Reed," he said. "The other two are still in Germany. They're married. They didn't need further medical work. They didn't need to come to Walter Reed."
Vogel said, "I'm doing really well... I healed really well, really quick."
He's hoping to stay in the Army until his contract ends on Dec. 14, 2009, "if my conditions allow me to," he said. "If, after therapy, my hands are good enough to continue my job."
His mother on Wednesday said that those with whom her son worked at the St. Johnsville rehabilitation center were pleased with his progress and impressed by his drive to get better.
Even though he's stayed in contact with his chain of command and the soldiers in his unit, Vogel is concerned that the spirit of camaraderie he shared with his fellow servicemen, on tour for the full 15 months, won't be the same.
He said, "I feel like I have unfinished business over there. I'd go back in a second. If they needed me back there, I would."
Asked if he regretted his decision to enlist, Vogel said he thinks he did the right thing.
His decision to join the Army was a "spontaneous thing. I wasn't planning to go to college, so it was a job. I definitely think I did the right thing. It was a good jump start on life. They'll pay for me to go to college if that's the way I want to go. The opportunities are endless after my therapy's done, and if I regain control of my hands."
Vogel said he'd like to continue to work for the government as a police officer or something along those lines after his contract with the Army ends.
On the day of Vogel's departure from the Capital District, bound to Chicago and to Washington, D.C. aboard American Eagle, his mother was glued to the TV, anxious over the grounding of a number of planes by the FAA.
As the mother of a serviceman injured in Iraq, it's a familiar kind of apprehension.
"It's hard," she said. I'm a mom. He's a good boy."
Vogel is the son of Ricky Vogel Sr. and Beth and Joe Hogan, all of Fort Plain, and brother to Kyle Rodeo and Kassidy Hogan. His grandparents are Bill and Marlene Dolder of Fort Plain, and Ellen and the late Richard "Red" Gillen of Johnstown.
Anyone wishing to contact Vogel can send letters or cards to 1101 St. Hwy. 163, Fort Plain, N.Y. 13339.
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