Help a hero

Staff Sgt. Bill Sellers Jr.,  of Marianna, wants to contribute. He loves his family and his country and he wants nothing more than to help both.

His industrious personality is probably part of what compelled him to become a soldier more than 20 years ago. It’s also probably part of the reason Sellers has been honored with the Bronze Star Medal for Valor.

Now, Sellers is struggling for the opportunity to do what so many of us complain about having to do: Work.

A tour in Iraq left Sellers with tendonitis, photophobia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, daydream seizures and Traumatic Brain Injury.

The combination of conditions has rendered him unemployable, resulting in financial hardships and frustration for Sellers and his wife, Pam.

“Me and Pam were just trying to come up with ways to make it on our own, working odd jobs, doing what we could. We realized there is just no way,” said Sellers.

A doctor in Arizona has shed a ray of hope for Sellers, and a local VFW Post and Ladies Auxiliary is working to make the trip to see this doctor possible. They say community support is greatly needed.

A need for leaders

Sellers joined the National Guard in 1985. Upon graduating from Marianna High School, he went on active duty with the Navy. He was medically discharged from Desert Storm for a knee injury.

A dozen years later, the World Trade Center crashed to the ground.

“My country needed me,” said Sellers.

He said he figured that since so many young Americans would be compelled to serve, they could use someone with military experience to help lead them.

Five days after Sept. 11, 2001, he married Pam.

“I knew then that he would go. I was a nervous wreck. But I was proud,” said Pam Sellers.

By July of 2006, Sellers had been ordered to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. There he trained for three months before being deployed to Iraq that October with the Army Delta Company 2/124 Infantry.

Local awareness

In September that same year, back in Marianna, the Ladies Auxiliary was visited by a guest speaker — a neurologist who gave a presentation on hyperbaric oxygen therapy for soldiers.

Dr. Carol Hendricks of Tucson, Ariz., told the audience of how HBOT could reverse Traumatic Brain Injury and its symptoms, as well as help with other conditions.

Hendricks was looking for soldiers to treat.

At the time, the auxiliary members and the Ted Walt Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12046 didn’t know of any local soldiers who needed the therapy; but Ladies Auxiliary Vice-President Liz Huber and other members didn’t forget what they learned at that presentation.

Valor

It was January 2007, and Sellers was laying in his bunk at a post near Tal Afar in northern Iraq. At about 10 p.m., he heard footsteps on the gravel outside — a good indication that the night would be a long one.

“They said we had a firefight in Tal Afar. There was a woman and three children being held hostage by AIF (Anti-Iraqi Forces) insurgents and my squad needed to assist a platoon in the stand-off,” said Sellers.

As squad leader, Sellers maneuvered his team through the hostile area, crossing through machine gun fire in close range. He exposed himself voluntarily to fire within a 50-meter range to confirm that all sectors of fire were covered and to ensure positive identification of the subjects, according to a narrative that accompanied the award of his Bronze Star Medal.

“I don’t know how many times I was shot at,” said Sellers. “But I remember when a bullet struck right by my face against the brick wall. It blew all kinds of debris into my face and swole my mouth up pretty bad.”

But after about 12 hours into the stand-off, a little girl of about 5 years old came running from the structure.

Sellers was the soldier to get her out safely, by standing up and shouting to others to hold their fire.

After 16 hours, all three children and their mother were rescued and the two insurgents were killed. No American soldiers were shot.

Lasting effects

It was about four months later that Sellers would meet his most severe injuries.

In May 2007, he was riding in a Humvee that was involved in a rollover. As a result, he suffered a concussion and was transported to a hospital in Mozul where he was kept for two weeks.

“They wanted to keep me longer, but I had to get back. My guys were still over there, and I needed to be there with them,” said Sellers.

He was released after begging to go back to his squad.

Two weeks later, Sellers found himself in another Humvee, leaving his combat outpost to “travel a route.”

The Humvee made it about 400 meters from the gate of the outpost when an IED, or roadside bombs, struck the vehicle.

Ears ringing and head spinning, Sellers was told to keep the squad pushing forward as explosive experts were called to the scene.

“We were looking for who did it. We stayed in fight mode for about three or four more hours after the explosion and then made it back to where the medics checked everybody,” said Sellers.

Sellers said they’ve since become less frequent, but at that time, IEDs were a regular part of the day.

“He saw so much. It’s not just about concussions. He’s told me stories of what he’s seen. A woman running up to him after an explosion, her headless child in her arms, begging him to do something,” said Pam, with tears in her eyes.

In Iraq, soldiers couldn’t even trust children, some of whom would approach soldiers amicably only to reveal a bomb under their clothing, said Sellers.
The Sellerses have two adult children and three grandchildren.

“He just wants to be able to feel comfortable around his grandkids,” said Sellers.

A chance meeting

Sellers was diagnosed as 70-percent disabled when he came back to the United States, leaving him ineligible to work a recruiting job that he wanted badly. In fact, it leaves him ineligible for any employment, he said.

“It’s hard to talk about it. You feel like you don’t want that label,” said Sellers.

He and Pam were finding it hard to make ends meet.

Outside a Wal-Mart, Ladies Auxiliary Vice President Liz Hubert was giving away poppies when she met an elderly gentlemen who’d mentioned that his son had recently come back from Iraq and was struggling to adjust.

She remembered the Arizona neurologist who was looking to help soldiers, but before she could tell the man, he had left.

“I just remember feeling upset. I was concerned for the soldier and I knew we could help somehow, if I’d only knew his name and how to reach him,” said Huber.

Just a few days later, Huber, the Ladies Auxiliary and VFW Post 12046 were outside the Jackson County Courthouse for Memorial Day.

Huber saw Sellers, who was there to watch his father play Taps, and something clicked.

“He was standing by a vehicle, and I walked up to him and said hello, and I remembered the man at Wal-Mart telling me that his son was not able to drive because of his seizures,” said Huber.

Huber asked Sellers if he had driven to the courthouse and Sellers explained that he could not drive, due to a condition that caused seizures.

“I knew he was the soldier I was looking for then,” said Huber.

Opportunity knocks

Through the VFW, Dr. Hendricks has offered hyperbaric oxygen therapy to Sellers free of charge. Another Arizona doctor has even offered free lodging during the trip.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the process of breathing 100 percent medical oxygen in a carefully controlled, pressurized environment, according to NorthStar Hyperbarics of Tucson, where Dr. Hendricks works.

“Breathing 100 percent oxygen under pressure results in a patient’s plasma becoming saturated with oxygen, resulting in increased oxygen to damaged brain tissues. As brain tissue heals, functional recovery follows,” reads an informational packet from NorthStar.

Now, Bill and Pam Sellers only need a boost from the the community to make the trip to Arizona possible.

If enough funds are raised, the couple will leave for Arizona on Sept. 2, and stay for nine weeks of treatment.

“We’ve been helping them with what we can for the last few months, but this is bigger than we can handle,” said Huber.

In an effort to collect donations that will cover the cost of food, fuel and other bills, the VFW Post 12046 and the Ladies Auxiliary of Marianna have opened the SSG Bill Sellers Treatment Fund at People’s South Bank, account #3302951359.