Like other Division I athletes across the country, Ohio thrower Eric Bildstein will use an extra year of eligibility, granted by the NCAA, to fully recover from injury and surgery. However, unlike other college athletes, Bildstein suffered his injuries while serving in Iraq.
Bildstein was in the last of a four-Humvee convoy near the Euphrates River when a land mine hidden under a paved road blasted through his vehicle. For some reason, perhaps the unevenness in the road, the first three vehicles did not trigger the land mine but Bildstein's did. The blast shot his Humvee into the air as the mine ripped into the vehicle, shearing off one quarter of it.
Two soldiers were knocked unconscious and another suffered a ruptured spleen. Bildstein was pinned in by his seat, his radio and the windshield. After shimmying out of the damaged vehicle, Bildstein remained alive, but battered.
The force of the impact caused a piece of cartilage to dislodge in his knee, requiring surgery. Bildstein also developed degenerative disc disease from the impact of the incident. Although his injuries weren't life threatening, they were nonetheless eye opening.
It was scary in a sense because a lot of times I would wake up and I could not function - it would take me hours to get going
Bildstein said.
Bildstein served with the Marines in Iraq during what would have been his senior season as a thrower on the Ohio track team. Initially, he wasn't sure if he would see combat. He didn't get called to Afghanistan, nor was he a part of the initial deployment in Iraq. However, when a general came and informed his unit that they would be called to duty in Iraq, he said he was ready.
It was a reality check Bildstein said. I was more than happy to do it; I've been training for it for five years. People who join Marine Corps infantry that's what they want to do. You don't join infantry to maybe go to war
you train to fight. That's your job. It's kind of like practicing all week for football
than sitting the bench on Friday.
Bildstein, who said he was mortared about once every three days, faced combat in the hornet's nest on a regular basis.
It was crazy
it was surreal
he said. You just can't believe it; stuff is on fire
stuff is blowing up
you see tracers and hear gunshots. When it's all said and done
you just sit back and say
'Wow
