U.S. Army Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook of Charleston (left) and other soldiers take cover near an ancient cemetery during a gunbattle with insurgents in Najaf, Iraq, in August 2004. Rebrook, who was honorably discharged last week because of an arm injury sustained in battle, was forced to pay $700 for body armor that was destroyed when he was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
"The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood. A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again. But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago. He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle. He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months. Rebrook, 25, scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home to Charleston last Friday".
