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Local man Holzinger recalls blast that nearly took his life

Marine Sergeant Robbie Holzinger was awarded the Purple Heart on Nov. 15, 2006, after he was injured by an improvised explosive device in Anah, Iraq.
Marine Sergeant Robbie Holzinger was awarded the Purple Heart on Nov. 15, 2006, after he was injured by an improvised explosive device in Anah, Iraq. Photo provided.

Marine Sgt. Robbie Holzinger was awarded the Purple Heart on Nov. 15, 2006, after being injured by an explosion in Anah, Iraq.

Holzinger enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2001 and served four tours to Iraq. He was injured during his third tour.

“My life wasn’t going in a good direction. Marine Corps sounded like a good step,” Holzinger says. “I was with Alpha Company out of Camp Lejeune.”

Holzinger’s job was light-armor reconnaissance. During his third tour of Iraq, Holzinger was with Alpha Company running counter-insurgency in the city of Rawah.

“We were taking a lot of mortar fire, so we moved closer into the city,” Holzinger says. “We kind of stopped that, working a lot with the populace.”

Alpha Company had to move to Anah and relieve the unit in control of the area after they had been pulled out for violating procedures on escalation of force.

“First day there — I went out with their guys. I had four from (unit) 2-8 and four of my bubbas,” Holzinger says. “I took the rear — first time I had ever taken the rear of a patrol.”

Holzinger’s squad spent the first night going over intelligence reports, trying to figure out known locations for ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

“We took out there, about a good 20 minutes into it, thought I’d seen an indentation in the ground, so I’m yelling at Jojo from 2-8 — one of the dudes that got hit with me — if he’s seeing what I’m seeing. By the time I dropped my weapon and turned to my left I felt a pop.”

Holzinger says that he thought the pop had gone off further up the patrol line from where he was. But he suddenly felt the air rush out of his lungs and pain creep into his left wrist.

“I could feel the bones start crunching together,” Holzinger says. “So I went to take a step, and my leg wasn’t responding.”

Holzinger dropped to a crawl and moved into a ravine in case of a possible ambush. By this point he realized he was in much worse shape than he had thought.

“Jojo’s on the other side of the road just screaming his head off like no tomorrow,” Holzinger says. “I flip over on my back — I got pain in both my thighs.”

Holzinger discovered that the femoral artery in his left leg had been severed. He reached frantically for a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

“Any other time the d**n thing would fall off,” Holzinger says. “And now I got a boot-band on it with a small piece of rigger’s tape, just yanking like no tomorrow on this thing.”

By the time Holzinger had freed the tourniquet and tied it to his leg, a Navy corpsman had arrived to help him. The corpsman gave him a shot of morphine that he says hurt more than the blast.

The corpsman got up to help Jojo, who was still injured on the other side of the road. Holzinger looked down to discover blood pouring over his chest rig.

“I start checking my face and my hand goes in my mouth,” Holzinger says.  “I got a big hole in the side, in through the front. (The blast) shattered my jaw and shot out six and a half teeth. I’m like, now what? It just keeps getting worse.”

Holzinger checked his rifle to make sure it was operational. The magazines on his chest rig had been riddled with shrapnel. Many of the rounds were damaged.

“You know, it’s a nice day out, too,” Holzinger says laughing. “Sun’s shining. Looking up, you start thinking — you’re not gonna go home. You’re in the worst place in the world. Your femoral artery’s severed. Your bones are broken. You ain’t running anywhere.”

Holzinger says his squad waited on the road for 45 minutes for the unit to arrive with a chopper to take them out of there.

When the chopper arrived, another corpsman got out to help Holzinger onto a gurney to move him over from the blast site.

“Dr. Guzman — he was a good dude — pops out trying to get this gurney open. And I’m trying to yell at him, ‘Screw it! Let’s walk!’” Holzinger says.

“Finally he got the thing open, put me on that bad daddy — the whole time Jojo had been yelling, screaming like he’s gonna die — (The doctor) looks over at me and goes, ‘Oh! Get him in there first. He looks in bad shape!’ I’m like, ‘You think, man?’”

The team successfully moved Holzinger’s squad from the blast site. But Holzinger says that seeing him in such critical condition had seriously shaken them up.

“I’m the first casualty of the battalion — so they’re all just looking at me,” Holzinger says. “We had this other doc in the corner scared looking at me. I’m like, ‘What’s up, doc? You’ll be all right.’ And I spit a tooth at him.”

Holzinger was moved to Al Asad, where he had surgery on his arm and severed artery. The doctors believed that his leg might have to be amputated, but they were able to save it.

“Finally I got out of there,” Holzinger says. “They flew me back home. They didn’t put my jaw back together until I got back to Lejeune.”
Holzinger was later flown to Andrews Air Force Base, where he was greeted by the rest of his unit and an Army master sergeant, who invited him to go to Washington, DC.

“I asked the nurse if I could go and she shot me up, gave me a bunch of pills — they got me dressed as much as they could. Leg’s in a cast. Arm’s in a makeshift joint, face taped up.”

While in DC, Holzinger and the master sergeant ran into two third grade teachers on a field trip with their students.

“They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! Can I get a picture with you guys?’ Cause he’s in uniform, and I’m in a chair looking all jacked-up,” Holzinger says.

“She’s like, ‘Did you get hurt in Iraq?’ And I’m like, ‘Lady, tell you the truth: less than 48 hours from now, I was dying in the streets of Anah.’ These two women just broke down crying — that Army bubba, he looks back at me. He’s like, ‘Don’t be doing that, man!’”

Holzinger went back to Iraq for a fourth tour after his leg had healed. He says if he hadn’t have been wounded, he would have stayed in the Marines.

“It’s been a rough road. It comes with a lot of baggage for that (Purple Heart),” Holzinger says. “I sure wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be back in my home, in the Marine Corps. I’d never get out. I loved that place.”