Healing The Wounds Of War

New Population Of Wounded Veterans Emerges

(CBS) 
Another vet, Brian Neuman, lost his left arm in Iraq. This winter he learned how to snowboard. A year ago he was leading his unit in a battle in Fallujah when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

"It hit me basically right at my left elbow. It took my arm completely, right off. I got out of the vehicle, holding my left arm in my right hand," Brian remembers. "I got out running with my arm in my hand. When something like this happens, you know that you have about a minute of just dust and light and heat. And you know your brain goes through, 'OK. Something hit us.' And then you say, 'I'm alive.'"

Medics raced Brian to the hospital, where he had to face the fact that his special ops days were over.

"That's the absolutely hardest part," Brian says. "When you when you first get injured, I mean, literally you're taking a soldier who's used to being out fighting, going every day. Leading his men. And suddenly he will no longer do that. First, you go through the frustration of the fact that your guys are still over there fighting. And you aren't. You actually feel a little guilty — and then it sets in."

But the guilt is gone, and Brian has a new career working for a nonprofit group called the "Wounded Warrior Project." He helps other wounded vets adjust to their new lives overcoming their wounds.

"That’s my new focus," he says. "It's like my new mission. It's like I’m in the military. And the guys behind me, the guys that I work with now, are my new family. Or they're my new unit."

Brian recently got engaged.

"For the one thing that I have to be sad about, I have a thousand things to be happy about," he says. "Because it, this has really completely changed my life. I don't think I would have had the chance to work in the capacity that I do now, with soldiers who really need the help."

Brian helped lead a Wounded Warriors ski trip, during which vets could develop their skills despite their disabilities.

Another Iraq amputee, Edward Wade, was thrilled to be back on skis. A roadside bomb blew off his right arm but his worst injury is one you can't see. The bomb slammed shrapnel into his head, causing serious brain injuries.

Edward had been an expert skier, a parachute jumper, a born leader on whom others depended. Now he's dependent on his wife, Sarah.

The Pentagon has identified almost 2,000 serious brain injuries so far — five times the number of amputees.

Because roadside bombs blast flying chunks of metal into heads and helmets with horrific force, recovery for brain victims can be agonizingly slow. After two years, Edward still struggles to talk.

Getting back on his feet has been an ordeal. "From lying down, I sat up. … Sat up where I could be moved into a wheelchair. … And from the wheelchair, I slowly got to where I could stand up straight and start walking for a little while," he recalls.