Pray for Chad, a soldier shot in the head in Iraq-Truth!

Pray for Chad, a Soldier in Iraq Shot in the Head-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor: This is a prayer request from a woman in Texas named Vicky Field. She says her son, Chad was shot in the head in Iraq.


The Truth: Vicky's son is named Chad Snowden. This prayer request first started circulating in November or December of 2004 and became widely circulated. According to a U.S. Army website, Chad was wounded by a sniper on November 13, 2004 while on patrol in Iraq. An article from May 5, 2005 in the Hood County News in Granbury, Texas, says that Chad is home and has recovered enough that he's thinking about going to college. According to the article, the sniper's bullet hit Snowden just above and behind his left eyebrow and exited the right side. From the time his mother first heard of his injuries it was only five days from the time that he was regarded as extremely critical until he could be moved from Iraq to Germany for treatment. Then once in Germany, he was kept for only a day until being moved to Water Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. While there, he and his mother met President and Mrs. Bush as they visited wounded soldiers and their families at Walter Reed. Chad's injuries were such that only a small part of his brain was damaged. In a short time, he was ready to be moved from Walter Reed to a military rehabilitation trauma brain injury hospital but, according to the article, that was delayed because of an overload of paperwork required. Vicky shot into action and has since become employed by the Department of Defense project to help people like Chad who've gotten lost in the paperwork. She works with the newly formed Military Severely Injured Joint Operations Center and makes sure that veterans are connected to military benefits. Her first project was for a reservist from Texas named Eric Richardson. He spent three months in the desert in Kuwait with boots that were a size too small and came away with a rare nerve condition that he says spread throughout his body including his brain. Now his memory is bad, his vision and hearing are affected, and he cannot walk. Vicky Field discovered that the roof in Richardson's home is leaking and some of the ceiling has collapsed including in his 4-year-old child's bedroom. She ran into a roofer at a gas station, told him about the Richardsons, and got the roof fixed. There is a toll-free hotline for the Military Severely Injured Joint Operations Center at 888-774-1361. Last updated 7/22/05
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
From: Vicky Field Subject: My son has been shot in Falujah.. I wanted to get everyone to pray for my son. Today, Sunday, got a call from the Army that my son had been shot in the head. I am asking for all your prayers. He was in a Humvee going through Falujah fighting and a gang of militia fighters fired on the Humvee and hit Chad in the head. The driver got him out of the city and took him to Baghdad. He was in fatal condition but now has been upgraded to stable critical. His dad and I are on standby to fly to Washington then on to Germany as soon as the military call us to go. The Army is trying to stabilize him enough to fly to Germany and at that time we will leave.. Please pray that my son will not have brain damage and that he will be restored and healed by the blood and grace of God. I ask for you to pass this prayer request on so there will be many prayer warriors for him. Thank you so much and I will try to keep you updated on his condition. God Bless Vicky Field, Granbury, Texas