An Army social worker described Bridges as "hopeless and helpless," according to medical records. She wrote that he tends to make excuses, doesn't engage in solving his problems and depends too much on his wife.

Bridges joined the Utah National Guard in 1999 shortly after graduating from Panguitch High School. He initially belonged to the famed 222nd Field Artillery, or Triple Deuce, based in Cedar City. He relished his job in the belly of a tank loading shells into its big gun on training exercises.

"It's an adrenaline rush," he said. "It really is."

The 222nd was activated in April 2003 but spent six months training ROTC cadets at Fort Lewis, Wash., instead of going overseas.

Bridges voluntarily transferred to the 148th Field Artillery just before it was called to Iraq in June 2004.

The first few months were spent training at Fort Bliss, Texas, and that's when he hurt himself.

The Army has a protocol for everything, but Bridges said "it's not always followed to a T." Loading 400-pound canvas tents onto a Humvee for a field exercise was supposed to be a four-man job. But Bridges said he found himself lugging the monster tents with only one other soldier.

While lifting the seventh one, he felt a pop in his lower back. The sharp, burning sensation dropped him to his knees. He tried to ignore the throbbing for two or three days because he badly wanted to go overseas. When he couldn't roll out of his bunk a few mornings later, he decided to see a doctor.

Doctors at the Fort Bliss medical clinic put him on pain medication and referred him to an orthopedic surgeon who determined he had a herniated disk. Bridges spent 16 days in William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso and began physical therapy.

Unit commander Maj. Darcy Burt visited Bridges in the hospital at least four times before the 148th left for Iraq. He described the young sergeant as "skittish" about his medical treatment.

"He was not very confident in the care he was getting," he said. "You could definitely tell he was in pain."

Smith and Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, the Guard's adjutant general, also visited Bridges. "He was in bad shape," Smith said, adding he wasn't getting pain medication. "We demanded they give him some attention."

Because Bridges didn't improve, doctors decided to perform an L-5, S-1 fusion in his lumbar area. Bridges said he had little choice in the matter. The Army could deem him "medically delinquent" if he opposed the operation, he said.

On Nov. 29, surgeons at William Beaumont placed two titanium rods, four screws and a bone graft cage in his lower back. The goal is to get two vertebrae to grow into one.