Maine soldier wounded in Iraq set to come home

After spending more than six months in military hospitals out of state, a Maine soldier who was critically injured while serving in Iraq is scheduled today to return home.

Sgt. Harold Gray, 35, of Penobscot is one of three members of the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion who were injured last year when insurgents attacked their convoy in Mosul.

Gray was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., from December until the end of May when he was moved to a rehabilitation facility in Florida.

He is scheduled to arrive today in Maine on a military flight at Brunswick Naval Air Station. His wife, Laurie Gray, who has been at her husband’s side since he was brought back to the United States, will accompany him on the flight. The soldier then will be taken to Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta.

Gray suffered serious injuries to both eyes and to his left arm and has shrapnel in his brain and chest.

Although he was showing signs of improvement earlier this year, Gray was diagnosed in February with spinal meningitis and took a step backward in his recovery efforts.

He was transferred in May to the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Fla., where he was expected to begin a strict physical therapy routine.

“I haven’t received much of an update,” Maj. Michael Backus, Maine National Guard spokesman, said Thursday.

As far as he knew, there hadn’t been much change in Gray’s condition since he had arrived in Florida.