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Welcome to the Wounded Warrior Diaries, where American servicemembers wounded in combat share stories of their service, including their hard-won battles on the road to recovery.

Eighteen months ago, Lt. Col. KC Bolton took command of the newly created Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Lewis, where 99 combat-wounded soldiers are recovering from injuries suffered "in theater."

Hearing the sounds of wounded soldiers crying for help and the staccato of nearby gunfire, Illinois National Guard Capt. Thomas Kim briefly flashed back to a war zone, but his mind quickly returned to the combat trauma simulation being held in a classroom at Rush University Medical Center .

The offensive in southern Afghanistan hasn't come without its casualties for U.S. and NATO forces there. Stripes reporter Drew Brown tells us that over the last few weeks helicopter ambulance crews from the 2nd Platoon "Gypsies" of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade have pulled dozens of wounded - and sometimes dead - U.S., British and Afghan troops from the battlefield. Brown's dispatch takes you to the battlefield and safely back out again with a group of dedicated medevac crewmembers.