With a fast-food breakfast in one hand and sunglasses atop his head, Master Bombardier Bounyarat Tanaphon Makthepharak walks slowly toward a picnic table to discuss a life that has been "no picnic."
As he bends down, the injured Ottawa soldier, wearing civilian clothes and back at home base with friends from the 30th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, winces and grabs his chest. It is the same region that was exposed beyond the bone by a Taliban rocket at the coalition's main base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, two weeks ago, and which bares the ghastly evidence of his near-death experience.
Makthepharak's heart was pierced by shrapnel and manually pumped back by a medic during minutes he does not remember -- save for dark smoke.
On June 30, "Mak," as he is called, was believed dead.
One week later, he returned home, and Thursday, he spoke about the experience.
"(Doctors) said I was clinically dead for a few hours. They told me they had to break through my ribs to massage my heart. Both of my lungs were punctured and one part of my heart was punctured," he said. "We had just gotten off our shift. We were walking through the mess (hall) and we were talking about how we had not been hit by a mortar round or a rocket for the past two weeks. After that, I just remember waking up in Germany."
The rocket attack also injured nine others, including another Canadian soldier. The base is home to more than 2,000 people, and has been subject to more than 20 attacks since February.
At the Landstuhl Medical Centre, a U.S. army hospital where he was transferred hours after the attack, Makthepharak stabilized and it became clear he would be flown home faster than most anyone expected.
News spread to his comrades in a reserve unit known as the Bytown Gunners and to Sgt. Jon Clark, a paramedic with the City of Ottawa.
"I made a few calls, talked to our dispatchers, and made sure I'd be the one to meet him at the airport for the transfer (into an ambulance)," Clark said Thursday.
The bandages are gone, but the baby-faced, 30-year-old is still smiling, even through frequent grimaces. The pain has slowed this health enthusiast down, but the experience has not shaken his purpose.
His commitment to the military runs deep, through his paternal line, through a refugee camp in Thailand, through three overseas tours, and a desire to continue a soldier's life despite this terrifying turn.
"I miss my boys. We went through training together and we had started to develop a bond," he said of his section in Afghanistan. "Once I get better, I'm thinking about joining operations. I'll go back," he added.
PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald
DATE: 2006.07.14
BYLINE: Matthew Sekeres
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