Lorna Illerbrunn holds a picture of her husband, Garrett, her son Tucker and herself while at a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Jan. 8, 2024. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Garrett Illerbrunn was transported last week from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to Homburg, where he will have brain surgery Tuesday. He was one of three U.S. soldiers injured in a drone attack in Irbil, Iraq, on Dec. 25, 2023. (J.P. Lawrence/Stars and Stripes)
LANDSTUHL, Germany — An American soldier wounded in a Christmas Day drone attack in Iraq is having brain surgery this week in hopes that he can be medically cleared for transport to the U.S., his wife said Monday from the military hospital where he had been undergoing treatment.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Garrett Illerbrunn was among three American troops injured in the attack at Irbil Air Base in northern Iraq. He wasn’t named at the time but was described by Central Command as being in critical condition.
Illerbrunn is in a coma and last week was flown to a hospital in Homburg, about 20 miles from Landstuhl, where the surgery will be performed Tuesday.
Illerbrunn’s wife, Lorna, an Army veteran, arrived in Germany on Dec. 29 and has been at her husband’s side since then as he receives care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the military’s largest hospital overseas.
While at her parents’ home in New Hampshire, she was told that her husband had been hit by shrapnel during an attempt to make it to a bunker, she said.
The Dec. 25 drone attack has been claimed by the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah. It’s among the more than 115 rocket and drone strikes launched at U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war started in October, according to U.S. Central Command.
Lorna Illerbrunn recalled having to explain the situation to their 7-year-old son, Tucker.
“Daddy was injured when there was a drone attack on his base, and some metal went into his brain, and his brain’s really hurt, and he’s fighting for his life,” she recalled telling him. “We need to give him all the love and support we can. I don’t know what’s going to happen from here, so we will just have to be strong, and love him.”
She left for Germany with photos taken from her parents’ refrigerator. One photo is of Tucker, and the other is of the three of them hiking at Garden of the Gods in Colorado, where Garrett Illerbrunn was previously stationed.
She puts the photos next to her husband’s hospital bed when she visits him. He is currently unresponsive, so she reads books out loud to him and tries to write letters to him every day, she said. He is in stable condition, the hospital said in a statement last week.
The Illerbrunns met in Afghanistan while both were deployed there. Lorna was an Army medevac pilot at the time, and Garrett flew AH-64 Apache helicopters.
He wasn’t the type she expected to fall for, she said, adding that she knew better than to date another pilot. But she enjoyed his blunt, direct sense of humor.
Illerbrunn is a native of Langdon, N.D., according to the state’s governor, Doug Burgum, who said he shared gratitude for the Army pilot’s service with Illerbrunn’s father, Brad, in a Dec. 27 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Garrett Illerbrunn grew up on a wheat farm in North Dakota. He is very persistent, his wife said, while talking about him applying for flight school seven times until he got accepted.
When she injured her back and couldn’t bend her spine, he helped put her socks and shoes on in the morning, she said.
If he can be stabilized, Illerbrunn will be brought to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland soon, his wife said.
She doesn’t know what will come next, but she said she appreciates the support shown to her and her family by other veterans, and by the doctors and nurses treating her husband.
A fundraiser organized by a family friend, Melissa Young, had raised more than $110,000 as of Monday afternoon. And messages of support from all over the world have come to her phone, Lorna Illerbrunn said.
“It has made a really, really horrific situation a lot more bearable, to have that love and support and to be able to pass that on to Garrett,” she said. “Despite the severity of the situation and the devastating nature of the injury, my heart is still hopeful.”
