KANE'OHE — After months of surgery and recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Army Sgt. Tony Wood was back home yesterday for a Christmas Day homecoming his family had been wishing for.

"To have him home for Christmas and to get to do this with the whole family, we're very lucky," said his wife, Joedi Wood.

The journey to yesterday's homecoming was not an easy one.

On July 29, Joedi Wood's world was turned upside down when she was told her husband was severely injured in a roadside blast in Baghdad that also killed two soldiers.

Wood was in a coma for 45 days. He endured several rounds of surgery to remove shrapnel lodged in much of his body. He finally was allowed to return to Hawai'i on Christmas Eve.

Megan Wood, 13, said she is happy to have her father home safe.

"I don't have to wake up every morning worrying about him getting hurt or shot," she said.

Wood, 38, was serving a one-year tour of duty in Iraq as a military police officer with the 720th Military Police Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas, when an explosion ripped through a truck he was riding in. The blast was so strong that it detonated grenades inside the truck, killing the gunner and driver.

"The last conscious memory I had was seeing the doors on the truck flapping in the wind," said Wood, who became one of nearly 16,000 U.S. service members wounded in Iraq; another 2,163 have been killed.

Wood said he had escaped injury in previous encounters with roadside bombs. But the day before he was wounded, the air conditioner in his usual truck broke. It was replaced with another truck.

"We joked that they took away our lucky truck," he said.

And instead of being the last truck in the convoy as they usually were, Wood's truck was the second in the line of vehicles.

After the blast, Wood was stabilized and then taken to a hospital in Germany. Shrapnel had ripped his right arm and chest and sliced through internal organs. Four days later, Wood was flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Megan Wood recalled the day military personnel came to their home to break the news to the family about her father. She immediately thought the worst and didn't wait around to hear the story. "I ran to my room and cried," she said. "I was thinking he was dead."

Joedi Wood flew to Washington to be with her husband. Her children — Megan and 16-year-old Adam — were flown from Texas to Hawai'i to stay with their grandmother.

In Washington, Joedi Wood found her husband of 18 years in a coma and heavily medicated.

"I just wanted to see his eyes. I always loved his eyes," she said.

When Tony Wood woke from more than six weeks in a coma, the first thing he saw was Joedi standing over him.

"I was thinking, 'How did she get to Iraq?' " he said.

After four months of recovery at Walter Reed, Tony finally was allowed to return to Hawai'i to reunite with his family.

"Having him home is such a blessing. But it's hard to think about the families of the two soldiers who didn't make it," Joedi Wood said.

Yesterday, a banner welcoming Wood home flew outside the small Kane'ohe home. Inside stood a Christmas tree decorated with American flags and pictures of soldiers Wood served with and met at Walter Reed.

"We call it the hero tree," said Sheila Andrade, Joedi Wood's mother.

For Tony Wood, being home is bittersweet.

"Being here with my family is wonderful," he said. But he said his medical discharge makes him "feel like I'm cutting out of it."

He said he wants people to know that despite the bad news that always comes out of Iraq, there are good things that are happening as well.

"You don't hear about the villages we're helping or the people we're saving," he said.

He said he believes the military is making a difference in the lives of the Iraqi people.

"With the exception of having to leave my family, I would go back," he said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.