War, Love and Hope

Soldier fights way back from brink

Pieces life together with husband by her side

Photo by John Wilcox: National Guard Sgt. Brienne Travers, severely injured in Afghanistan, is recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center — with husband Sgt. Joe Sullivan by her side.

February 1, 2011 - As a child growing up in Norton, Brienne Travers believed what her father always told her.

“He would say, ‘Bre, God never gives you more than you can handle.’ ”

Her faith was tested last August.



Sgt. Travers, a 13-year veteran of the National Guard’s 379th Engineering Company, was part of a night convoy on a mission to build combat outposts in Afghanistan’s Logar province. The vibrant 31-year-old nurse, who doubles as a heavy equipment operator in the Guard, was at the wheel of a new $1.4 million MATV vehicle — basically a Humvee on steroids — when a Taliban sniper’s rocket-propelled grenade ripped through the cab of the 18-ton gun truck.

Hers was the first truck hit in the Aug. 3 ambush.

“My husband, Joe, says if I was a couple of inches taller I would’ve been decapitated,” Bre said in a recent interview. “I guess the rocket just missed taking my head off.”

It struck just above the door frame on the passenger side and tore across the driver’s compartment, hurling shrapnel into the right side of her face, shoulder and jaw, destroying half of her teeth and shattering the palate in her mouth. {continued}