Oswego Marine receives two Purple Hearts

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Commandant Joseph Dunfor pins the Purple Heart on the bed sheet of Oswego Marine Kyle Moser, who earlier this week received two of this country's oldest honors for injuries he received last month inAfghanistan. | Submitted photo

Updated: January 17, 2012 8:25AM

Witnesses said there was no mistaking the pride in Kyle Moser’s face when the second-highest commanding officer in the Marine Corps pinned the Purple Heart on him.

Nor was there any denying the 19-year-old lieutenant corporal’s surprise. Not only did Asst. Commandant Joseph Dunford award Moser with one purple ribbon for being seriously wounded Nov. 22 when an IED exploded while on foot patrol in Afghanistan, he received another Purple Heart — designated by a gold star on the pin — because he’d been injured a couple weeks previously, when a bomb went off while he was in a tank as a turret gunner.

The two Purple Hearts were presented to the Oswego Marine on Tuesday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md,, where he’s now undergoing surgeries after losing both legs and part of his right hand.

As he did last week, Moser insisted upon talking to me when I called about these honors. His voice is still raw, but his courage continues to impress, especially as he described “the phantom pain” he feels where his legs — both amputated above the knees — once were.

Those pains are random, frequent and intense, hitting him, he says, like a “sharp jolt.” And even though he’s on medications to dull the impact, doctors are beginning to wean him from the strong drugs.

Moser has two big surgeries coming up — the first, Dec. 21; and another three to five weeks later — to try saving the mobility of his hand mangled in the explosion. After that, doctors will begin concentrating on the prosthetics that will allow him to walk out of the hospital some day.

Yet, even as Kyle Moser continues to battle back from his catastrophic injuries, more wounded soldiers and Marines are brought through those hospital doors. They, too, will receive these special medals of valor.

The public would be surprised at “how many are here like Kyle,” said his father, Bob Moser of Yorkville.

“Brave young men whose lives have been changed forever,” Bob Moser said.

Kyle’s dad, along with his mom Patricia Zander of Oswego, and wife Alex, have been at the wounded Marine’s bedside since he arrived in the states 2½ weeks ago. Alex, a Rosary High graduate who was living with her family in Yorkville after Kyle was deployed in August, will stay in Bethesda with her husband of nearly a year until he is released. His parents will travel back and forth from the Fox Valley to Maryland, as they juggle work and family with their son’s needs.

After the Tuesday morning awards ceremony — also attended by two majors, a lieutenant and staff sergeant — the commandant thanked the young man for his sacrifice to this country.

“I definitely felt proud,” said Kyle.

As did his family, who wiped away tears while the commandant pinned the purple ribbon on Kyle’s bed sheet.

“He’s always been my hero,” Alex said of her husband. “Now he’s the country’s hero as well.”