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Local Man Receives Purple Heart

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By JOHN W. ALLMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 12, 2008

TAMPA - Air Force Capt. Timothy O'Sullivan tried to gather himself.

He had just regained consciousness. There was blood. A soldier was asking whether he was all right. He remembered little, sitting in a decimated British Warrior tank near Basra in southern Iraq.

He didn't remember the sound of the 80-pound explosive projectile that detonated three feet behind his head, crippling the tank.

He didn't know he was bleeding internally and suffering from a traumatic brain injury.

All he thought about was his wife, Kristen, working at MacDill Air Force Base. "That's who I wanted to call as soon as I came to," said O'Sullivan, 37.

Friday, facing more than 50 family, friends and fellow troops, he looked to his wife as the Bronze Star and Purple Heart were pinned to his chest.

"It's an honor for me," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert R. Allardice, director of strategy, plans and policy for Central Command, "because you were wounded and you're still standing here."

'He's Precious'

O'Sullivan was recognized during a small ceremony at MacDill in the Davis Conference Center. His wife, his parents, grandparents and in-laws sat in the audience.

"It's the happiest day of my life," said his grandmother, Anne Johnston, of The Villages, a retirement enclave in Central Florida. "He's precious."

O'Sullivan said he didn't expect or want to be in the spotlight: After nearly 17 years in the military, he was just doing his job during a second tour, this time to Iraq, in August 2007.

For eight months, he was embedded with the Iraqi army's 14th Division as a senior adviser, working with British and Australian military training teams, making sure the Iraqis were equipped with weapons, ammunition and food.

On March 2, he was in a convoy heading to Basra in a tank with five other troops. They passed under a bridge rigged with an explosive device.

"I was in the back of the vehicle. I just remember the pressure changed," he said. "I never heard the sound."

No one died in the attack. O'Sullivan's injuries were the most severe. He was taken to a hospital in Basra and treated for internal bleeding. He called his wife, who is a comptroller at MacDill. It was lunchtime in Tampa.

She knew it was a call from Iraq because of the delay before she heard his voice. He wasn't supposed to call until later in the day. She asked how he was.

"He goes, 'Well.' You go, 'OK, what?' You don't forget the moment," she said.

The couple, married just two years, live in Apollo Beach. Kristen O'Sullivan, 27, said she couldn't go home and sit. She called family to deliver the news.

Timothy O'Sullivan's parents work at an air station in Antigua, an island in the West Indies. His father is a retired Air Force senior master sergeant.

"It was pretty traumatic," said his father, also named Timothy. "The minute you hear it, you go numb. You can't process it."

The Road To Recovery

Overseas, O'Sullivan was whisked to Kuwait for a traumatic brain injury test. He failed twice. A doctor there asked him to name an animal, any animal.

"I couldn't even think of one," he said. "Finally, I said dog. I couldn't think past dog."

He ended up at a hospital in Germany before returning to Tampa for outpatient treatment at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, the nation's busiest. He still gets headaches, he said, but he can process thoughts more quickly.

Walking down a hallway, he no longer feels as though he is in an elevator car in a free fall. He isn't as forgetful, and his balance has returned.

Doctors won't let him go to the one place he wants - back to Iraq. Not yet, at least. His brain, they say, needs time to heal. His ability to think quickly has yet to fully return.

For now, he is back to active duty with the 6th Mission Support Group at MacDill. He is home with his wife. And for a day, he soaked in praise for an award that many troops don't live to accept.

His father, Timothy, said he is proud. He said the threat of serious injury comes with the military job.

But the Purple Heart, he said, "it's something you wish none of your children ever have to receive."

Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.

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