From the Department of "You're Not Jessica Lynch" comes this altogether underreported story...(that's in part due to the POTUS unwilling to acknowledge these people.

US towns gather in their wounded

Returnees shunned by national media win warm local welcome

Gary Younge in Greenfield, Missouri
Saturday December 27, 2003
The Guardian

As the honorary grand marshall of Greenfield's Christmas parade, Derick Hurt waved with his right hand as he led the other vehicles in a lap of the main square on Saturday. His left hand is still not functional since he bailed out of his Humvee in Mosul, Iraq, and landed on it, breaking his wrist. Every now and then he would stop saluting locals holding "Welcome Home Derick" posters and tap the spot where his lower leg used to be, to ease the throbbing.

Behind him, local dignitaries, church groups, and the kings and queens of the high school threw sweets to children from the boats and floats on which they were towed. Ahead of him was a lifetime of disability as an amputee, with a body flecked with shrapnel.

"It's a big thing for me," said Mr Hurt, 26, of the reception he has received in the week since he arrived home. In a town of around 1,500 nestled in the rural midwest, an area of big skies and small creeks, his injury and homecoming have been a big event. Local people raised thousands of dollars to help his family travel to see him at the Walter Reed military hospital in Virginia. Cameras from the local networks met him when he arrived at the airport in Springfield. When he got to Greenfield, the town was waiting in the square.more at link.

Again I ask, why do we have to go to the foreign press to get news like this? WTF is wrong with our sense of value? Are the media so fearful of tarnishing the Neo-cons' Excellent Iraqi Adventure™ facade that they won't cover this sort of thing? Didn't Time just name the 'soldier' person of the year?