Palos Heights Veteran Reflects on Time in Afghanistan and Iraq

Sean Gallen remembers an Afghan boy dragging his broken leg into the makeshift hospital on the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The bone, broken for months, was now piercing the boy’s skin. An Army medic, Sgt. Gallen, 33, served from 2005 to 2010 and spent a year in Afghanistan where he mostly treated Afghanis. He also saw duty in Iraq.

Gallen entered the Army for career opportunities, and with two wars raging and deployment to a battle zone practically guaranteed, Gallen wanted to do good.

“I was just some guy trying to make his life a little better and realized that he could do something to help,” Gallen said.

The college grad had trouble securing a steady career after discovering law school wasn’t where he wanted to be. He remembers Afghanistan’s colorless desert landscape and noticing the blue hue of the Afghan women’s clothing as the only touch of color.

“It was like seeing color for the first time,” he said of coming home to America. Since Gallen’s return to civilian life, he has spent time volunteering in Haiti and occasionally working at free health clinics.

This is one of a series of 9-11 portraits assembled by the Patch network for 9/11: The Decade After, a special report for Huffington Post. Find more photos on the Action America Facebook page.