'I gave what I can give'

Brian fields calls about what forms he needs to fill out to be released from the military.

A Cloquet soldier and his family live in a hotel room as he recovers from losing his feet in Iraq

Room 3J28E at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is small.

It might once have been an office, but patients today call it the leg room.

Inside, more than a dozen prosthetic legs lean against the walls and each other. Brian Saaristo's legs are stored under the sink.

They are shorter than the others because Saaristo, of rural Cloquet, still has his own knees. His feet are somewhere in Iraq.

On July 2, Sgt. Saaristo of the 101st Airborne Division joined the 468 U.S. soldiers who have become amputees while on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I consider myself lucky," Saaristo said.

He still has his sight, most of his hearing and, above all, his life.

He and his family have coped with the injury with equal parts grit and humor. When asked if he misses his feet, Saaristo paused.

"I don't know. We didn't talk much," he eventually said with a hint of a smile. "But it would be wrong to say I don't miss them. It was easier to get around with feet."

His loss has extracted a price from everyone.

Saaristo's wife, Cheryl, and two children, Leah, 9, and Brian Jr., 5, have for now given up their home in Wright, about 25 miles west of Cloquet, where there was room to run and play. The family has lived together in tiny hotel rooms in Washington during Saaristo's recovery.

"This has brought us closer," Cheryl Saaristo said. "We're very fortunate to have each other, to have this time together, and to have Brian."

She was shocked at the number of amputee soldiers at the hospital -- men and women whose arms and legs were taken by bombs, bullets and improvised explosive devices like the one that took her husband's feet.

"What you see happening on TV is real," Cheryl said. "Those IEDs, this is what they do."

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