Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Husband of S.C.-native soldier wounded at Fort Hood

AIKEN, S.C. -- A soldier who grew up in South Carolina had to wait five hours to see her husband who was wounded in a shooting rampage on Fort Hood, even though she was on the base, her mother said.

After Stephanie Royal finally got to see her husband, she called her mother and told her they were both OK. He was released from the hospital hours after the Thursday shooting.

"It was chaos in there. My son-in-law is grateful that the Lord guided the bullet. It almost touched his spine," Jackie Gray told The Aiken Standard.

Gray said her daughter was working at another part of the base when she got a message her husband had been shot. She couldn't make it to the hospital for five hours because of the lockdown.

Chris Royal didn't realize he had been shot at first, Gray said.

"He was telling people to get down, and then someone told him he was bleeding and tried to stop it," Gray said.

Both Stephanie and Chris Royal are preparing to return to Iraq. She is Army captain, eight-year veteran and a signal corps specialist set to deploy for her third tour overseas in February. He also is a signal corps specialist and a 13-year veteran and is scheduled for his fifth tour in Iraq in December.

The couple met in Iraq, got married in December 2006 and had a son in February 2008. Stephanie Royal grew up in Columbia, and joined the ROTC while at South Carolina State University.

The couple will send their son to be with his grandmother while they go overseas. Gray said it's rough, but she uses her faith to get by.

"I tell people when it's your time, it's your time," Gray said. "I pray, and I'm OK with it. I can't let it worry me. Otherwise, I couldn't survive."