WASHINGTON — Pfc. Jeff Sanders lost his left leg three months ago when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb about 30 miles south of Baghdad.

If the Marines would let him, the 22-year-old would gladly risk his other leg, too.

“There is absolutely nothing else I’d rather do than get back out there,” he said. “To be back with the unit, if it meant I could save one of their lives, I’d lose the other leg. I’d do it all over again.

“You don’t realize how much you care for those guys until you’re not there with them.”

Sanders said most of the soldiers he has met at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also want to get back to the battlefield and, more importantly, back with their units. Despite the trauma of their injuries, most would return to danger if they could.

“I feel like I’m failing them,” said Pfc. Joe Ramsey, a 20-year-old who lost his right arm during a car bomb attack in the Sunni Triangle. “I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do. And this place isn’t the real Army …”

Ramsey’s unit was in Korea for almost a year before deploying to Iraq; he joked that the guys were getting a “bad reputation” for their loud parties while off duty.

Now, during his down time at the hospital, he tries to call them between shifts, but only gets to talk to them every few days.

“I miss the guys,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Dale Beatty, 26, had been squad leader with his North Carolina Army National Guard unit for almost eight years before he lost both legs in February.

His unit has been selling bracelets made of rope to raise funds for his recovery, and has raised about $3,000 so far. He wears one too, and tugs at it every time he talks about them.

“When I would go on leave, just for 15 days, I would feel guilty and need to be reunited with the guys,” he said. “Now, I just want to get back with my guys.”

Physical therapy provides some relief for soldiers like Beatty, who approaches his daily exercises like an assigned mission.

Since a rocket attack took Staff Sgt. Joe L. Bowser’s right leg in April, his rehabilitation has included going skiing several times on a prosthetic limb. The 45-year-old knows all the staff in the physical therapy department and teases other patients around him for not having “real” injuries.

But when he talks about the soldiers still in Iraq, his excited, booming voice softens.

“Most of them were a lot younger than me, so it was like being with my kids,” Bowser said. “My battle buddy was 18 years old, and she reminded me of my daughter.”

His makeshift Reserve unit trained for only a month before they entered Iraq last January, but he considers them a second family.

“You get close quick,” the 45-year-old said. “They tell me they don’t want me back out there, because I already did enough for them. But it’s hard.

“When I got hurt, I was having more problems with not being with them than I was dealing with my lost leg.”

The Department of Defense has made efforts in recent months to return wounded soldiers to active duty, even close to the battlefield. Col. Daniel Garvey, deputy commander of the Army’s physical disability agency, said greater numbers of seriously wounded soldiers are returning to service because of a new emphasis on the experience and inspiration they can bring to units.

Navy medic Jose Ramos lost his left hand in a shoulder-fired rocket attack, but after six months of treatments he has been approved to return to duty in the coming weeks. He will likely serve at stations outside Iraq, which is not as close to the front lines as he would have liked.

“I’ve been ready to go back since the day I was hurt,” the 24-year-old said. “I love the field, and I love being out there helping the Marines.”

But the others know they likely won’t get the same opportunity.

Ramsey has already talked to Army officials about continuing his military career in some way, although he admits it won’t be anything like his combat service.

Cpl. Mark O’Brien, 22, lost his right arm in an ambush in April and has decided to go back to college instead. He isn’t happy with the decision.

“I wish I could go back and fight with my friends,” he said, his voice shaking. “You can ask pretty much anyone in here and they’ll tell you they want to go back.

“But it’s time for me to move on. It’s just tough not to be there with them.”

Bonds soldiers develop are very strong, experts say

WASHINGTON — Experts say a soldier’s desire to return to the battlefield, even after a serious injury, is not surprising.

Leonard Wong, a professor of military strategy at the U.S. Army War College, said the main concern of soldiers on the battlefield is keeping their friends safe. Even if they have been hurt, they still have that sense of duty to their unit.

“They feel a social obligation with their friends,” he said. “It’s a responsibility that the group has put on them, to go out there and fight.”

In a 2003 study of soldiers shortly after the end of major combat operations in Iraq, Wong found that while some soldiers fight because of a sense of larger political ideals, the primary motivation for most is simply keeping themselves and their fellow troops safe.

He said even those he met who had suffered significant trauma — like losing a close friend in battle — wanted to stay to help keep others safe.

“When I talked to officers their No. 1 fear was always losing somebody,” he said. “It’s not just about self-survival.”

Dr. Paul Hanges, an organizational psychologist at University of Maryland, said the desire to return to the battlefield, even after a horrific injury, shows how strong the bonds soldiers develop with each other can be.

“They may have been shot, but they see their buddies still back on the line,” Hanges said. “Even after a stressful and life-threatening situation, they want to go help them.”

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