Bob Woodruff Returns to Iraq

ABC News correspondent, Bob Woodruff, has returned to Iraq.  If you don’t know what happened to him three years ago, you might not realize how significant his trip is. 

On January 29, 2006, Woodruff and Canadian cameraman, Doug Vogt, were riding in an Iraqi army tank when a bomb exploded.  Woodruff suffered a serious brain injury (Vogt was also struck in the head by shrapnel and sustained a broken shoulder), part of his skull was removed and he was kept in a medically-induced coma for 36 days to help facilitate his recovery. 

Since leaving the hospital, he has been a strong and loud voice for those who have been injured in the war.  He and his wife, Lee, who is an an editor at Family Fun Magazine, chose to write a book titled In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing.  It’s a detailed account of what it was like for him right after the injury (he didn’t remember his twin daughters or even some basic every day words) right through his rehabilitation.

During his absence from ABC News, Good Morning America hosts, Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson, took turns covering the evening newscast with co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Woodruff is on a reporting trip that left Washington with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff… and is staying on U.S. military bases while he is in Iraq.”

I hope that everything goes well for him.  I’m not sure I would have the courage to go back there!

image: Newscom