Ryan McNeely of Buchanan was injured in Afghanistan. (Photo provided)
Story Created:
Sep 8, 2009 at 3:10 PM EST
Story Updated:
Sep 8, 2009 at 3:28 PM EST
BUCHANAN - A Buchanan family is trusting on prayer to bring their son home after he was wounded last week while on patrol in Afghanistan.
Last Wednesday, the family of Ryan "Bubba" McNeely received the news that he had been wounded in an IED explosion in eastern Afghanistan near Sharana, the forward operating base where he was stationed.
McNeely, 22, has been in Afghanistan since March as an Army private. He enlisted last summer, going to boot camp in North Carolina and then being stationed in Alaska until his unit was sent to Afghanistan.
Leona Wynn, McNeely's father's girlfriend, said the family first learned that Ryan had been wounded late Wednesday and have gotten periodic updates since then.
"It was our worst nightmare," she said.
She said Ryan was quickly evacuated to a military hospital in Germany with wounds to his lungs and liver from the IED explosion as well as a gunshot wound to the upper right chest.
"His unit was going to relieve another unit when a roadside bomb went off near them," she said. "They then came under small-arms fire and an IED exploded. He was in very critical condition. They said on a scale of one to three with three being the worst, he was a three."
Wynn said the family has been on a rollercoaster ride since Wednesday. Reports have had him showing improvement, getting off a ventilator and then being put back on it Sunday as he's listed in critical but stable condition.
They had originally been told he would be flown back to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., immediately, she said.
McNeely's family has since been told he was to be flown back to the U.S. late Tuesday on a special plane equipped with an intensive care unit and a doctor, nurse and respiratory therapist on board.
Mark McNeely said Monday that he and Ryan's mother and sister planned to fly to Washington on Tuesday to be there when Ryan's plane landed.
Wynn and Mark McNeely have set up a shrine of sorts outside their North Redbud Trail home, placing a couple of Army shirts as well as a banner asking for people's prayers for Ryan.
“We truly believe in the power of prayer," Wynn said, a belief echoed by Ryan's mother, Kim Crawford, who also lives in Buchanan.
"Many churches are praying for him," Crawford said Sunday.
Wynn noted that Ryan's father is proof of the power of prayer.
"The doctors told him he should have been dead five years ago from melanoma," she said. "He's a witness to the power of prayer. The doctors have been flabbergasted."
In talking about Ryan, Wynn said that serving in the military was something he talked about growing up.
"All he ever talked about was that he was going to serve in the military," she said. "He had every intention of making it his career."
Since being in Afghanistan, she said Ryan has been calling once a week. "A month or so ago he said we'd start hearing more about Afghanistan but told us not to worry, that he'd be safe," she said.
Now, she said the family just wants to get him back to the United States, and they’re asking others to join them in praying for his recovery.
"We just want him home," she said.
