Wounded Soldiers Return to U.S. for Treatment

SAN ANTONIO – Five soldiers injured in the insurgent attack that killed 22 people have arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center (search) for treatment.

The soldiers arrived late Thursday and were among 13 flown from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

"For the soldiers, it's a very scary time and a lot of things happening very, very, very quickly," said Col. Carlos Angueira, BAMC's deputy commander for clinical services. "There's a lot of emotion, a lot of questions. They know they're burned, they know they're sick, but a certain amount of relief, too, to know that they're out of the theater, that they're coming to a place where they're going to be taken care of."

The soldiers suffered burns when what appears to be a suicide bomber set off a bomb, killing 14 service members among the 22, in a mess hall as service members were about to eat at Forward Operating Base Marez (search) in Mosul.

Nine of the 13 wounded arriving at BAMC suffered burns and four others had orthopedic injuries, hospital spokeswoman Nelia Schrum said. Four of the burn victims were injured at other locations in Iraq, she added.

A terrorist video aired Wednesday night on network television depicted the steps involved in making a vest bomb filled with ball bearings, and even showed how to maximize damage to the victims.

The troops will join 25 patients now in the fourth-floor burn ward, which has 40 beds but has never been full since the war began. The facility has seen as few as 18 patients and up to 35, and also serves civilians from Houston to El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley to Waco.