Maine soldier has brush with 4 Iraqi bullets

NEW PORTLAND – Few soldiers who return from Iraq will be able to tell a tale as harrowing as that of a New Portland man who was shot four times in the head and lived to tell about it.

Army Cpl. Joshua Handrahan, who returned home last weekend, said his Kevlar helmet stopped three of the bullets but a fourth lodged in his head during a security operation in the town of Fallujah.

Handrahan, who plans to return to service, said he learned a couple of things from his war experience.

“I don’t take anything for granted anymore,” the 21-year-old said. “And, I learned to duck.”

Before he was shot, Handrahan said, his battalion had achieved its objective on April 14 by raiding three houses. But the 5-ton truck he was traveling in was raked by gunfire from a bunker.

Handrahan felt something hit him and knew he’d been shot when he felt the blood. He said he continued to fight until the battle was over.

He and other wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in Baghdad, where he underwent surgery to remove a bullet that had grazed his skull but was only skin deep. He also was hit in his right thumb.

It took awhile to get him home. He was in Baghdad for a week, then sent to the Army’s Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, where he stayed for four days. He was in Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C., until May 12, then went to Fort Riley, Kan.

He returned home a week ago to New Portland, northwest of Skowhegan in Somerset County.

Getting shot wasn’t the first close call for Handrahan. He was struck by shrapnel in February when a 155 mm explosive device was remotely detonated under the Humvee in which he and four others were traveling in Ramadi, Iraq.

“Those guardian angels up there should be paid overtime,” his mother said.

Handrahan will spend a few days at home before going to Fort Riley, where he will receive treatment for his thumb. Soon to be promoted to sergeant, he plans to return to service once he is cleared to do so.