On Memorial Day in the Tri-Cities, they shared stories of sacrifice

Memorial Day is personal for Mary Tallouzi.

Several of her family members came home from war with scars, but none as bad as her son, Staff Sgt. Daniel Tallouzi.

He was caught in an attack in 2006 at Camp Taji, located about 17 miles north of Baghdad. The explosion sent shrapnel into the back of her son's head, damaging his brain.

She spoke Monday to a crowd of about 50 people in Pasco about her struggle following the debilitating injury that left Daniel in a coma, and turned her into an advocate for veterans and their families struggling to recover after traumatic injuries.

"Little did I know when Daniel's mission ended, mine would begin," said Tallouzi, a national speaker for the Wounded Warrior Project.

The day of the attack started likely any other, she said. Daniel's friends would tell her they had just finished their shift and eaten dinner, and planned to do laundry and exercise. When the mortars started to fall, it sounded like trash can lids being dropped. Daniel looked out the door and didn't see anything.

Then a mortar hit the building they were in, injuring Daniel. He was taken to Germany. Mary and her daughter arrived within days to find him still in a coma.

She detailed her battles that took her first to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., then to the VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., and finally to a private hospital in New Jersey. She said that throughout her journey, Wounded Warrior Project volunteers were helping her.

After three years of struggles, she brought her son home to Albuquerque in 2009. He died less than a year later.

Now, Mary brings her story to others who need.

"Today's military are all volunteers. They raise their hand, and they go to work and they don't ask questions, they do their job," she said. "If anybody deserves the support of the common ordinary American, it is our warriors."

Her story was one echoed across the Tri-Cities as people remembered members of the U.S. Armed Services struggling to recover from injuries. At the same event, Pasco officials brought Marine Cpl. Bryant Scott to share his story of recovery as well.

He was participating in a land navigation exercise when he collapsed from heat stroke. His liver was shutting down, and the Kennewick native's heart had stopped several times.

Eight months after waking up from a 14-day coma, Scott finished the 50-mile Badger Mountain Challenge.

"Sacrifice is not an arbitrary term," he said. "When you see people who are not free, it's all they can think about. ... When it's gone, it's the only thing that you can think about. You'll fight for it. You'll die for it."

This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 6:08 PM with the headline "On Memorial Day in the Tri-Cities, they shared stories of sacrifice."