Injured Marine back in LV with infant son

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 10:53 a.m.

Marine Staff Sgt. Michael Dunn took shrapnel in Iraq and lost a buddy in the war, but Monday afternoon he was worried about one thing.

"He's so small and tiny I feel scared of hurting him," Dunn said, as he carefully shifted his son, Kyle James, not yet a month old, from one arm to the other.

Dunn, 26, has been cradling his son since Saturday in his recently built North Las Vegas house because while he was cradling an injured Marine about two weeks ago in Baghdad, he was struck in his right arm by shrapnel.

He carried the soldier to safety and then sat out the rest of the April 8 firefight in Saddam City, East Baghdad. The shrapnel -- "half the size of a dime," Dunn said -- eventually became his ticket home, after he was flown to a hospital in Germany.

Dunn wanted to go back to the front lines but was ordered back home. He said it was tough to leave behind the 12 guys in his unit, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Division, 3rd Platoon.

"I'm basically like a dad to them," he said.

But it was also tough being away from his son, born on March 26 at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center.

His dad, a blue-eyed graduate of Durango High School, learned on the battlefield of Kyle James' birth in Las Vegas.

"I was getting ready to get some sleep and had already taken my boots off when the platoon commander called six of us over," he said.

"We were all complaining because we thought we'd have to get moving again. But then the commander jumped off the truck on me and said, 'It must be good to be a father.'

"Everybody started congratulating me and I broke down and cried."

Dunn's wife, Lori, recalled the day she found out about her husband's injury.

"It was like a bad dream, a nightmare," she said.

His mother, Liz Lampsa, said she was scared it would be serious.

"The first thing that goes through your mind is he's not going to make it," Lampsa said.

"I thought, 'He's not going to get to see his son' -- and his son looks just like his dad when he was that little," she said.

Within a few hours, both found out that Dunn's life was not in danger.

On Monday Dunn held up the remains of his uniform, stained with his own blood.

"It was worth it," he said, referring to his injury, and the war in general.

"When you look at the news and you see the Iraqis are protesting against the coalition forces and doing their pilgrimages, I feel like we did our job," he said.

"That shows they've been liberated, since before they couldn't do what they wanted. Part of the mission is done because we freed the people from a dictator."

The sergeant keeps images alive in his head of Iraqi children he played with, including a small boy he gave some Skittles candy whose parents said was named George Bush.

"That's what they said, anyway," Dunn said.

People in Saddam City gave the troops flowers and food and let snipers go up on the roofs of their buildings, he said.

As for the protests against the war held on U.S. soil, Dunn said, "It kind of bothers me in a way. They may not support the war, but they should support us."

The Marine reservist's plans include going back to work as a parts salesman at Bill Heard Chevrolet and enlisting once again when his contract ends in February.

He thought for a minute about how he would explain war, and killing, to his son some day.

"I would say if you had to do it, you do it. You're just trying to keep alive and keep your fellow servicemen alive," he said.

"I would try and tell him why it had to be that way, and hope he would understand."