Schofield Sgt. Jason T. Mehlhoff gave his daughter, Mahkaylah, one last hug before he was deployed to Iraq on Jan. 24. Advertiser library photo

As he rode in the passenger seat, a bullet went through the truck door beside Sgt. Jason T. Mehlhoff, a member of the 84th Engineering Battalion out of Schofield Barracks.

Then it ripped through his right calf, severing one of two nerves that lead to the foot.

Then it tore into Mehlhoff’s left leg, creating two hairline fractures as it came to rest.

But Karrie Mehlhoff knows she is lucky. The attack Saturday on soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division (Light) turned two wives into widows. Staff Sgt. Oscar Vargas-Medina, 32, of Chicago, and Spc. Ramon Ojeda, 22, of Ramona, Calif., were killed in the ambush.

But Karrie Mehlhoff also knows the wounded have their own painful paths to recovery. It calls upon a different kind of bravery, and tests relationships and personal endurance.

Her husband, a 24-year-old carpenter with the battalion, called from his hospital bed to let her know what happened, she said.

"He was just crying he was so scared," she said today by telephone from Fayetteville, N.C. She moved there with the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Mahkaylah, after her husband’s January deployment.

"He is worried about how he is going to take care of his family," she said. "My husband doesn’t cry but he was crying like a baby. He said, 'God I’m so scared, I don’t know what to do.’ "

Jason Mehlhoff, who enlisted in the Army nearly six years ago right out of high school in Florence, Ore., was in the third truck as the convoy wound through Al Amarah on Saturday afternoon, he told his wife.

"There were no signs that anything was going on," Karrie Mehlhoff said. "Little kids were waving at them as they drove by like nothing was wrong."

Then the attack began.

When Jason Mehlhoff was hit, his driver grabbed something in the medical bag to stop the bleeding. From the truck, the young sergeant could see two casualties, see their comrades frantically trying to save them with CPR as the fusillade continued.

Somehow, the soldiers escaped.

Karrie Mehlhoff doesn’t know what will happen next. Her husband is scheduled to arrive in Germany tomorrow for medical treatment. Eventually, he’ll be sent back to the United States for his recovery.

"With that right leg being shattered, I think it will take a long time," she said. "I am not sure he will be 100 percent ever again and I think that is what scares him the most."

Her husband could be medically discharged from the military and Karrie Mehlhoff, who has prior service in the Army, may have to re-enlist. She was a cook before. She’ll do it again.

One thing Karrie Mehlhoff is sure of though: Her love for her husband.

"I know he doesn’t want to be in a wheelchair," she said. "Maybe he is scared I will leave him if he is in a wheelchair. I don’t want him to think like that. I didn’t marry him for his legs."