Ken Lee
U.S. Army, Iraq
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Dr. Ken Lee deployed to Iraq in 2003, where he commanded a unit that provided medical care and transported medical supplies. At one point, Lee supervised care at Camp Cropper, where those under his command delivered medical care to important detainees, including Saddam Hussein.
Lee’s experience in Iraq was shaped by a difficult decision he made one day to break protocol. The results left him and others under his command permanently injured. Afterwards, Lee struggled to come to terms with that decision, and to make amends with some soldiers under his command who blamed him.
Today, Lee runs the spinal cord injury ward at the VA Medical Center Milwaukee, where he cares for other veterans.
Each generation of veterans has a different attitude and mindset, says Dr. Ken Lee, chief of the spinal chord injury ward at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. Lee was seriously injured in Iraq.
Vietnam veteran Greg Neylon is fitted for a wheelchair that he can drive with his chin.
Raymond Martinez, a veteran of the Second Gulf War, in physical therapy. He was injured in a motorcycle accident after returning from the war.
Dr. Ken Lee performs acupuncture to relieve the pain of a veteran at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Milwaukee.
Shrapnel-damaged helmet that Dr. Ken Lee was wearing when injured in Iraq. "I look at the helmet and it puts me back in prospective that I'm still alive for some reason," he says.
Medals from veterans on the desk of Dr. Ken Lee in Milwaukee.
A patient at the Milwaukee VA. Many veterans carry scars—physical and mental—from their war experience. "Initially I was very shy about my scars," said Dr. Ken Lee, "but now, I am not proud of it or leery about it. It's just part of me now."
"I don't take any heavy duty medications because it affects my work," says Dr. Ken Lee. "I need to think clearly. So I wake up with the pain, I go to sleep with pain. I deal with pain on a daily basis."
