At first, things didn’t go well for Morales at the U.S. military hospital in Ramstein, Germany.
At the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where nearly thirteen thousand wounded U.S. service personnel have been evacuated since 2004, he was placed in a room and started complaining about being hot. No matter what the nurses did, it didn’t matter. He was sweating.
It was still winter in Germany. There was snow on the ground, but it felt like Morales was in the middle of the desert.
Finally, the doctors discovered what was wrong: Morales had developed prickly heat—a condition in which pores get clogged with sand or dirt or salt.
He had spent days scratching. He itched so badly, he felt like ants were biting him.
He was pissed off and cranky.
He couldn’t move his leg. The pain was intense. And he was anxious to see his family. He had talked to Katherine and his parents on the phone. They were all worried about him. He told them he was doing better and would be home soon. They wanted to fly to Germany to visit, but he said he would be returning soon to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
They were worried about that. They had read about a scandal at Walter Reed. In February 2007, the Washington Post published a series of investigative articles outlining cases of neglect and poor hospital conditions. Morales assured them that conditions had changed for the better. That’s what friends had told him.
Besides, he knew he would need more surgeries and physical rehabilitation in order to get back on his feet. He was going to try to do everything to save his leg.
Still, he was down—until he heard that Major General David Rodriguez, the commander in charge of Coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, was visiting the hospital in order to see him. When the general arrived, he pinned a Purple Heart on Morales in his hospital bed. It was one of the proudest days of Morales’s life. His grandfather had received a Purple Heart after he was wounded in the Korean War. Now Morales was the recipient of one for his wounds in Operation Enduring Freedom.
In a way, he had come full circle. He was carrying on the family tradition. He only hoped that, with his wounds, he would be able continue his military service.