Welcome Home, Dustin!

Dustin Tuller returns home to Milton, Florida to a hero's welcome.

Good luck to Dustin and his family. Thank you for your service, Dustin.

Wounded soldier goes home in style
By Pamela J. Johnson
Sentinel Staff Writer

May 23, 2004

MILTON -- While his amputated legs were still healing, Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Tuller told his doctors he would be home by Father's Day, surrounded by his four young children.

Doctors at the military hospital in Washington told him that was impossible. Tuller, who lost his legs in a shooting attack in Baghdad two days before Christmas, would never be fit enough by then, they told him.

On Saturday, the 28-year-old infantryman stood on prosthetic legs in front of cheering well-wishers who lined the streets in this small town near Pensacola to welcome him home.

Flanked by his wife, Alisha, and their children, Tuller told the crowd that he had to work hard to prove the doctors wrong. He beat his own deadline by nearly a month.

"Never tell an infantryman that something is impossible," Tuller told the gathering outside the Santa Rosa (County) Administrative Center. "Because he's going to do it. When doctors told me I wasn't ready to stand up, I said, 'Let's try it.'

"And I stood up. Of course I was 4 feet tall," joked Dustin, who was about 6 feet before his injury. "But I was standing up and my butt wasn't killing me anymore. When I started using the parallel bars before doctors said I was ready, they told me, 'You know, you have to stop defying everything we say."'

After five months in hospitals, where he spent time in a coma, undergoing operations and then painful physical therapy, Tuller arrived at his welcoming ceremony sitting atop the back seat of a convertible. His wife was at his side, holding a flower bouquet.

A motorcycle officer led the procession, followed by sheriff's cars and wailing fire engines. They passed cheering revelers waving handmade signs, and Chubby's Steaks and Barbecue, which posted "Welcome Home Dustin" on its marquee.

Wearing dark sunglasses, shorts and a T-shirt with an American flag pictured on it, Tuller smiled, waved and mouthed "thank you" at the adults and children, who reached to shake his hand. He climbed out of the convertible driven by Rep. Jeff Miller, and walked with canes to his wheelchair.

Toby Keith's "American Soldier" blared from loudspeakers:

I'm just trying to be a father,

Raise a daughter and a son,

Be a lover to their mother,

Everything to everyone.

Alisha Tuller, 23, pushed her husband's chair up a ramp to the stage, while their children, ages 51/2 to 11/2, trailed behind in matching handmade flag-patterned outfits. Soon after Tuller lost his legs, his oldest son, Dillyn, was afraid and wouldn't go near him. Early on, Dillyn pulled the legs off his GI Joe, trying to come to terms with this new version of his daddy.

But on Saturday, Dillyn was affectionate with his father. He cheered with the rest and joined in when someone sang "God Bless the U.S.A."

The 90-degree heat prompted Don Salter, the Santa Rosa County chairman, to joke with the people standing in the sun for two hours.

"I guarantee you one thing," Salter said. "If you weren't a redneck when you got here, I guarantee you will be one before you leave today."

Lawrence "Reb" Tatum, 57, of Milton had been standing in the hot sun much longer than most. He arrived at the county building about an hour before Tuller was scheduled to be there. A Vietnam War veteran, he wanted to be among the first to welcome home the badly wounded soldier whom he had never met.

Tatum, who served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, stood with two prosthetic legs similar to Tuller's. He says his exposure to "Agent Orange," a herbicide used by the military during the war, caused him to develop diabetes. Both legs had to be removed about 10 years ago because of his illness, he said.

Tatum, who rode his Harley motorcycle to the event, said his artificial legs have not changed his lifestyle.

"Instead of putting on my shoes in the morning," said Tatum, his shaggy gray hair hanging from the sides of a baseball cap, "I put on my legs."

He was thrilled by the outpouring of love from the community for Tuller. Tatum said he thought it was great that people were building Tuller and his family a new home as a gesture of gratitude for his sacrifice.

"When I got home," he said, "I just got off the plane and went back to work."

Posted by floridacracker at May 23, 2004 02:05 PM