Unbreakable Bonds: An Injured Veteran Family’s Journey of Sacrifice, Service, and the Healing Power of Hope By Paris Moulden, Wounded Warrior Project “I joined the Army.” Christine Schei couldn’t believe her ears when she heard her son say those words. She couldn’t hide her heartbreak. It’s not that Christine didn’t believe in military service. She did. Her husband served nine years in the military. Her older son, Erik, was a decorated combat soldier who served in the Army. However, it was Erik’s service and the injuries he returned home with that made her heart sink when her younger son Deven told her he’d signed up for the Army.
Erik was shot in the head by a sniper during his second deployment to Iraq. He survived that shooting – barely. But the traumatic injury to his brain forced him into a wheelchair, barely able to speak or move. He requires constant care.
“They teach you about dying in the military, but nobody tells you how to live with the injuries,” Christine said.
“I had to support him even though my heart wasn’t in it,” she said about Deven’s decision. “But I knew emotionally he needed that support and that pat on the shoulder saying it was OK. But it was hard.”
When Erik left for the Army in 2002, he was 18 years old, just starting his adult life, with the hopes and dreams most 18-year-olds have – a career, a family, traveling. At just 21 years old, all of Erik’s dreams and the hopes his parents had for him changed forever. 14
WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / January 2024
Christine didn’t know how she could deal with something like that again. But she always supported her children, and that wasn’t about to change.
For Deven, the decision to join wasn’t hard. Before Erik left for Iraq, he had promised his brother that if anything happened to him when he was overseas, Deven would pick up the mantle and finish what Erik started.