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E-mail StoryA hero returns: Cpl. Wesley Barrientos back in Bakersfield
| Thursday, Mar 27 2008 8:06 AM
Last Updated: Thursday, Mar 27 2008 2:21 PM
Cpl. Wesley Barrientos received a hero's welcome at Meadows Field Wednesday afternoon.
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Cpl. Wesley Barrientos returned home to Bakersfield to a hero's welcome on Wednesday afternoon at Meadows Field.
More than 100 people gathered at the airport to welcome him, including veterans, National Guardsmen, members of the Bakersfield Police Department and the Kern County Sheriff's Department.
Although the 23-year-old lost both legs when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq in December, Barrientos walked into view and saluted his supporters.
The following article was originally published on Dec. 21, 2007.
SOLDIER LOSES BOTH LEGS IN BLAST
When her 23-year-old son didn't call for the past three days, Elubia Barrientos knew something was wrong.
"I know my son," she said about her boy, Wesley Barrientos. "I knew something happened."
Barrientos' sergeant called in his place Thursday to tell his mother that he lost both of his legs when a bomb hit a humvee he was riding in while on tour in Iraq.
"My head is confused," Elubia Barrientos said. "It was an accident."
Wesley Barrientos is a soldier in the Army and a graduate of Ridgeview High School, according to his mother. She did not know his rank.
He was supposed to marry his fiancee in early January.
Barrientos was in Germany Friday night and is scheduled to be flown to Washington, D.C., soon, Elubia Barrientos said.
The soldier was able to talk to his mother for a few minutes on Friday.
"I'm OK, I'm OK," he told her.
"I can tell he's not OK," she said.
The mother told him, "No worry about it. I will give you a hug all the time. I will stay with you all the time."
-- Report by Californian staff writer Felix Doligosa Jr.