Fort Drum wife uses Facebook to provide updates on injured husband

FORT DRUM — The wife of an injured soldier has gone online to pass along updates about her husband’s condition.

Kimberly A. Flores, wife of Staff Sgt. Roberto Flores, created a group on Facebook, “Prayers for SSG Roberto Flores,” after her husband was badly wounded Wednesday while fighting insurgents near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Flores is part of the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. He has served in the Army for 19 years and turns 38 today.

By Friday afternoon, the Facebook group had accumulated 870 people, with many offering support and prayers to the Flores family.

According to Mrs. Flores, her husband was shot through the right shoulder, leaving him with a severed spinal cord and a damaged lung. She said he is paralyzed from the chest down.

Sgt. Flores is a patient at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. His brother, also stationed in Afghanistan, is at his bedside.

Sgt. Flores is expected to be transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., and the first flight that could get him to the States leaves Christmas morning.

“I’m not sure I can wait much longer,” Mrs. Flores said.

She expressed frustration at how she initially was contacted after her husband’s injury.

She said she was called about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday by an Army chaplain in Afghanistan, who informed her that her husband was injured, and that he had all of his appendages. Mrs. Flores said the chaplain “knew nothing” about the extent of her husband’s injuries or how he was hurt.

“I expressed my utmost anger to the Department of Defense,” Mrs. Flores said. “That’s the worst way for anybody to find out about something.”

She said she stayed in contact with the chaplain, pressing to receive some kind of encouraging news. “Answer something that gives me some hope,” Mrs. Flores said.

A few hours later, she was contacted by the unit’s rear detachment, then the Department of the Army, and at last got some details about her husband’s injuries and the attack. About three to five hours after the initial call, she said, she finally was able to speak with her husband.

“Hearing a voice lets you know he’s stable enough, and that he’s aware,” Mrs. Flores said. “It provided a lot of relief.”

She called the rising interest in her husband’s condition “nothing short of magnificent.” In addition to kind messages on the Facebook group page, she said, several friends have extended offers for meals, gift certificates, gas cards, frequent-flier miles and Christmas presents for their 3-year-old son, Javon.

The injury to Sgt. Flores comes less than three weeks after he returned to combat from a two-week rest and relaxation period.

Mrs. Flores called her husband a loving father, “the most outgoing, loving person I’ve ever met” and the “biggest kid you’ll ever imagine.”

“He’s my best friend, and as long as I still have him, he’ll be that,” she said.