Injured soldier returns in time for Christmas

A Fort Drum soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan last week was moved to a stateside military hospital in time for Christmas.

Staff Sgt. Roberto Flores, a member of the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, suffered a severed spinal cord and a damaged lung when he was shot Dec. 21 while fighting insurgents near Kandahar, Afghanistan. His wife, Kimberly A. Flores, said doctors told her the spinal cord injury is inoperable.

Mrs. Flores called his arrival Sunday evening at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., “the best Christmas present.”

“To see him and be able to talk to him, it was a huge relief,” Mrs. Flores said. She said she and her son had moved quickly to get to the hospital.

Also with Mrs. Flores is Sgt. Flores’s sister, Roberta. His mother is expected to arrive in the next few days from the family’s hometown of Anaheim, Calif.