Terry Rathbun seriously wounded in Iraq

East Lyme –– Just a day or two away from finishing his war duty on the streets of Fallujah, Iraq, Sgt. Terry Rathbun Jr. was seriously wounded Friday while on patrol there, according to his father.

Rathbun, a 35-year-old whose family lives in Niantic, was in stable condition Monday in Germany with a life-threatening wound after being shot in the face, according to a Marine spokesman.

The details of the shooting and his injury were unavailable Monday, but Rathbun's father, Terry Rathbun Sr., said by telephone from his Seacrest Avenue home that his son will likely be airlifted to Bethesda Naval Hospital by today or Wednesday.

Rathbun Sr. said he knows only that the bullet entered his son's right cheek and exited his neck. He plans to travel to the hospital in Maryland after his son arrives there.

Rathbun Jr. is a squad leader of about a dozen infantrymen with the Marine Reserves of Charlie Company, home-based in Plainville. The company of some 200 men is part of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, which has been in Fallujah since early April. Charlie Company and the rest of the battalion are due back on the East Coast by late October, but most of the men have already turned over their duties to replacements.

The news of his son's injury comes at a particularly trying time for his family, Rathbun Sr. said, because his wife, Diane, has been taken to hospitals twice in the last 10 days for emergency conditions related to a heart condition and diabetes. The 60-year-old woman suffered a mild heart attack at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven on Sept. 23 and has been home only since Thursday, said Rathbun Sr.

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