Silenced by Injury, Army Veteran Finds His Voice Through Art
“They couldn’t even find him at first,” Nancy said. “The only window that was broken was the one he went through. He was thrown 80 feet from the vehicle, and his head hit the pavement.”
By Paris Moulden, Wounded Warrior Project
Nancy, Brian Sr., and Brian’s younger sister, Danielle, received the devasting news that Brian might not survive the accident.
Ever since he was a little kid, Brian Zreliak loved putting the images in his mind on to paper. He didn’t need words to express himself, just some color and his imagination.
“They told us he only has about an hour to live, so you better hurry up and get here,” Nancy said. “We can’t even get to Pittsburgh in an hour.”
“Brian’s been drawing since he was 3 years old,” his mother, Nancy Zreliak, said. “He won his first coloring contest when he was 3 or 4, and it was in an older group.” Brian’s love of art continued into adulthood. He graduated from the Pittsburgh Art Institute, but in 2003, Brian felt compelled to serve his country and joined the Army. He was stationed in Alaska and received orders that his unit would deploy to Iraq in 2005. “I was so nervous. I didn’t want him to go,” Nancy said. Before he was to leave for Iraq, Brian visited his family back home in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Little did they know it would be the last time they saw Brian as he was when he left. The war in Iraq didn’t turn out to beBrian’s biggest battle. A devastatingaccident on the desolate Alaskan highway resulted in several severeinjuries, altering Brian’s ability to speak, remember, and move his legs and arms. Serving the nation’s most severely wounded warriors, including those with significant brain injuries, is the purpose of the Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) Independence Program. The life-changing programs and services offered by WWP™ support warriors like Brian and caregivers like Nancy never feel alone on their journeys to recovery. A Life-Altering Accident Brian returned to Alaska in July 2005 after visiting his family. The commute from the airport to Brian’s duty station was six hours. A fellow soldier and his wife picked Brian up from the airport, and Brian used the long drive back to take a nap in the backseat of the SUV. Not long before reaching their destination, the driver lost control of the vehicle, causing the SUV to roll multiple times along the remote stretch of road. The impact ejected Brian from the car. 12
WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / July 2025
The Zreliaks rushed to get to Alaska and did the only thing they could do in the meantime as they waited on word of his condition — pray. After three plane rides, they arrived at the hospital to find Brian in a coma, still hanging on, but his condition was dire. After three months at the hospital in Alaska, Brian transferred to a veterans hospital in Virginia, where he spent another three months. Doctors recommended placing him in a nursing home for long-term care — but Nancy wouldn’t hear of it. “Absolutely not,” Nancy’s responded. “He’s coming home if we have to carry him.” Home for the Holidays – and a New Way of Life Brian returned home to his family just in time for Christmas. Before his arrival, Danielle decorated the house with lots of twinkling lights. “He just looked around, and it was so funny because he had this look on his face,” Nancy said. “And I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s smiling.’ Brian never smiled at the hospital; he was just blank. That was the first step where we knew that he knew he was home, and it felt good. That started the journey.” At the beginning of the journey, Nancy stayed with Brian 24 hours a day. Coming home helped, but it was just the first step in a long journey of unknowns. One of the most difficult times, though, was watching Brian struggle to come to terms with his changed body and mind. “I could tell he was trapped,” Nancy said. “He knew what he wanted to do, he just couldn’t do it.” Without realizing it at the time, Nancy had also become trapped. She was juggling the responsibilities of Brian’s care and frustrated with not understanding what Brian was feeling. Brian Sr. decided to leave his job to help care for his son and give Nancy some muchneeded breaks.