 
SGT KNOSPLER
Wounded Nov 12th 2004 Battle of Fallujah Iraq
Community support was apparent when the Tri-County Motorcycle Club presented a donation to a local wounded Marine during a ceremony at the Marine facility here Aug. 2.
The group donated more than $1,000 to Sgt. Jacob Knospler, step son of Picatinny employee Richard Wood, who was critically wounded in Iraq during 2004.
At the time of his injury, Knospler, from East Stroudsburg, Pa., was a corporal in Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Patty Wood, Knosplers mother, said that Knospler had taken the lead in clearing a house Nov. 12, 2004, in Fallujah, when an insurgent unleashed a grenade that exploded near him, ripping shrapnel through his face, as well as across his body.
The shrapnel entered his face approximately 1 inch in front of and 1 inch below his left ear, she said. It passed though the bones of his face and exited through his right cheek, just above the corner of his mouth.
She said that as a result, all the bones in her son’s face and jaw were broken or blown away, and that he lost his upper palate as well as all but three of his upper teeth.
She explained that either a piece of shrapnel or a piece of bone passed upward behind his right eye, striking the eyeball, rupturing the retina and lodging in the right frontal lobe of his brain.
In addition, she said that Knospler had numerous shrapnel injuries on his legs and arms.
In all, he received loss of hearing in his left ear, loss of sight in his right eye, loss of upper palate and upper teeth, a collapsed lung, a right frontal lobotomy and seizure activity, she said.
Despite Knosplers injuries, Wood said he was able to walk to the medevac transportation and even joke to his buddy about not being pretty anymore.
However, his brain soon started to swell and he required an emergency brain surgery in Baghdad.
After the life-saving surgery, Knospler was medically evacuated to Germany and eventually transported to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland to recover from his wounds. A 175-pounder when he arrived in Iraq, he had ballooned
to 239 pounds from the water pumped into him. But then a case of meningitis sent his weight plummeting down to 125 pounds.
It was at Bethesda, on Knosplers 23rd birthday, that Wood said her son received the Purple Heart from President Bush.
Wood said that at Bethesda with Knospler was fellow-Marine Gunnery Sgt. Ryan Shane.
Prior to sustaining his own injuries, Knospler had pulled the injured gunnery sergeant from the streets as snipers fired continuously at them. Shane received injuries to his legs and abdomen that made it impossible for him to move himself.
The motorcycle club found out about the injured Marine because Knosplers stepfather, Richard Wood, is a long-time friend of fellow Picatinny employee Walter Wurster, a member of the motorcycle club.
When Wurster told the motorcycle association of Knosplers condition, they decided to do something to help the wounded Marine and his family.
To raise money to assist with expenses, Wurster said the association raffled off a basket of cheer, which contained crackers and $300 worth of liquor. They raffled the basket for $1 a ticket and also accepted personal donations.
In all, they raised $1,300 to present to Knospler. We wish it was more, but we are just glad we could do something, said Bill Johnson, Tri-County Motorcycle Club president.
Marine 1st Sgt. William Meisinger spoke at the ceremony and Sgt. Maj. Gerald Schreck, Picatinny sergeant major, presented Knospler, Wurster, Johnson and Gordon Meyer, another member of the motorcycle club, with commanders coins.
About two dozen members of the motorcycle club, Marines from the 2/25 Marine Reserve Command, here, and Knosplers family, including his wife Sheena and daughter Jahna, attended the ceremony.
I would just like to say thank you, to all who participated in the fund-raiser and ceremony for Jake. This experience is just overwhelming, said Patty Wood.
When people who we dont know us give their time and monies so that Jakes life might be a little easier, Thank you just isnt enough, she said. I have the advantage; I know what Jacob did in Iraq. I know what an honorable
Marine he is. I know the extent of losses suffered by his company, and I am eternally grateful that he is with us today.
She said, He is my hero. For Tri-County and Picatinny to recognize and honor him, it reaffirms my faith in the American people. Thank you to all.
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