While American troops are still fighting in Iraq, one injured marine reservist, T.C. Rollins, is back at MSU taking classes. After five months in Iraq, Rollins came back to the United States in the middle of February. He enrolled this semester for 12 hours.
Rollins, a 21-year-old banking and finance major, said he did not suffer wounds from battle. “It was an auto accident,” he said. “We didn’t know the driver, but he drove recklessly and sped the whole time. He swerved the Humvee right to take a left, and we started fishtailing around,” he said.
Rollins, who once slept outside in Jordan in 15-degree temperature, sat in the sunshine at the State Fountain Bakery. After the accident, a hole was cut in the left side of his gym shorts so that an external fixator could adhere to both ends of his femur, he said. Girlfriend Jocelyn Gong sat with him as he explained how a shell punctured his leg on Feb. 9.
“The vehicle hit the gravel and flipped one to two times; I can’t remember exactly how many,” he said. He was thrown 15 feet from the Humvee.
A partner’s M-16 assault rifle trampolined, went off and fired into his leg. His pelvic bone broke in three places. “My artery was severed,” he said.
Doctors told him they were surprised he lived. They also saved his leg.
“I stayed conscious for two hours after the injury,” he said. “I was sitting on the operating table during some of the surgery.”
Friend and Phi Delta fraternity brother Jon David Cole said that since the accident, Rollins’ personality has positively changed.
“T.C. has always been extremely ambitious and patriotic,” Cole said. “But his experience in Iraq has shown him the ability of someone alone in such a hard place.”
“His injuries have given him a show of God’s grace. He definitely has greater appreciation for his country, the people in it and his loved ones,” Cole added.
While Rollins was away, he frequently kept in contact with the fraternity, updating them on his situation.
Rollins said even though he was badly hurt, he would go back to Iraq if asked.
He fully supports military action in Iraq, he said. “I do believe that Saddam Hussein was a bad leader and that we needed to relieve the Iraqi people of his command,” he said.
“There are things we could of done different,” he said. “We weren’t ready for battle. We needed more supplies.”
“But we can’t tolerate terrorism,” he said. “We’re showing other countries that we won’t be bullied.”
He said that Iraq is a concentrated place where terrorists go to in order to fight. “It’s the easiest place to get them to attack.”
According to Rollins, the United States has the upper hand in the war in Iraq. “The country has troubles, but there are more Iraqi soldiers and policemen trained and ready to stand on their own feet,” he said.
The Purple Heart recipient plans to finish his degree, but his battalion could be deployed to any country where intelligence finds a terror alert.
Despite the chance that her boyfriend could depart for another country again, Gong said, “I’ll always support him 100 percent.”
Rollins said that he would rather go back and fight terrorists than let her go unprotected.