Ex - Gen. Shelton to Have Surgery

[Max]

Ex - Gen. Shelton to Have Surgery
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 3:17 p.m. ET


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Retired Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the former Joint Chiefs chairman who injured his spine two months ago in a fall from a ladder, said Thursday he will undergo spinal surgery next week.

In his first public comments on the accident, Shelton said he is not assured a full recovery but has made more progress than originally expected after falling at his Fairfax, Va., home on March 23.

``My goal is to get as close to 100 percent as I can get,'' he said in a conference call from Walter Reed Army Medical Center with several reporters at the Pentagon. He spoke confidently and showed flashes of the humor for which he was well known during 38 years in the Army.

``My reserve chute failed, and I took a dive,'' he said in describing his fall.

He said he was about 10 feet high when a branch he had pruned from a tree in his yard knocked him from the ladder and sent him tumbling to the ground. He landed on his head and immediately lost feeling in much of his body, he said.

``I realized the minute I hit, I had damaged something,'' he said.

Shelton, 60, retired in October. He was a Green Beret, an expert parachute jumper and more physically fit than many men years younger. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam, led the Army's air assault on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War and commanded the U.S. Special Operations Command.

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for four years he was the senior military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense.

Shelton said his doctors were not uniformly optimistic about his recovery prospects immediately after the accident. He said he dedicated himself to doing more than expected and reminded himself of the old saying, ``When the going gets tough, the tough get going.''

Next week doctors will perform a procedure known as a laminectomy and fusion to widen Shelton's spinal column and relieve pressure on the spinal cord. The damage is in his upper spine.

He said he probably would be in a neck brace for a month or two after the surgery.

In the two months since the accident, Shelton has made substantial progress in regaining use of his limbs. He said he can walk, although his balance is less than normal, and has almost full use of his right arm. Recovery in the left arm has been hampered by a ligament tear sustained in the fall, he said.

Asked whether he had resigned himself to never again being able to jump from an airplane, Shelton said:

``I wouldn't say that. I don't give up that easily.''



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[Max]

Former U.S. Military Commander Recovering From Fall
By REUTERS


Filed at 1:45 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and former paratrooper Gen. Henry Shelton said on Thursday he was walking and recovering steadily with therapy from a serious spinal injury suffered in a fall from a ladder.

In a telephone interview with reporters from nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Shelton said doctors might operate on his neck next week to relieve pressure that partially paralyzed him in a March 23 tumble as he trimmed a tree in his yard.

``I walk under my own power. I'm a little shaky,'' said the former Army special forces ``snake eater,'' who retired last September as America's top military officer.

``I've never said quit. That's kind of been my attitude,'' added Shelton, who safely made hundreds of jumps from warplanes in a 34-year military career.

The towering 60-year-old refused to rule out parachuting again from an airplane after he goes home from the hospital in coming weeks.

``You might say that that was not a way I would envision getting hurt,'' he joked. ``When you jump out at 20,000 feet in the middle of the night, you figure the risk is a lot higher than it is 10 feet off the ground on a ladder in your back yard.''

When asked if his jumping days were over, he said: ``I wouldn't say that. I don't give up that easily.''

INITIALLY PARALYZED

Shelton said part of his body was initially paralyzed in the fall and that he lay on the ground for 30 minutes until a neighbor heard him calling out.

``My arms and legs are functioning very well ... my goal is to get as close to 100 per cent as I can, and not be satisfied until I think that there's nothing left than I can do,'' he told reporters.

``I feel very fortunate at this point. Considering how bad it could have been and the fact that I can get up and walk now -- I've got almost full use of the left arm and theyare very optimistic about the right as soon as they get this ligament damage'' fixed, he said.

Shelton, who previously also headed the military's elite Special Operations Command, was known as a ``snake eater'' with other members of U.S. special forces trained to slog through swamps and jungles on missions.

He was JCS chairman from October 1997 to September 2001.

Before that, he served in the U.S. Army for 34 years as a specialist in airborne strategies and special operations tactics, including service as head of the Special Operations Command from 1996-1997.

Among his military awards, he received four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, two Army Distinguished Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and the Purple Heart.

After he left office and following the Sept. 11 attacks on America, Shelton served as a television news commentator for NBC before he was injured.



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