Street dedicated to wounded Army warrior

Sgt. Robert Scott III, with his father and mother, Robert Scott Jr. and Valence, in their home on the newly dedicated Sgt. Robert Scott III Boulevard.

Rossana Weitekamp

Langdon st. in Rockville Centre/Lakeview was dedicated in Scott’s honor.

Rossana Weitekamp

Scott is a 1991 graduate of Malverne High School.

Courtesy Scott family

The Lakeview and Malverne fire departments provided a flag arch for the ceremony.

Rossana Weitekamp

Wounded Warriors showed their support during the ceremony.

Rossana Weitekamp

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On Sept. 11, 2001, Robert Scott III, a 1991 graduate of Malverne High School, was riding the E train to his job in the World Trade Center, and was two blocks away from the twin towers when the first plane struck. The attack, the loss of many colleagues and a desire to help his country prompted Scott, a trader special clerk for Goldman Sachs, to leave the Wall Street life and join the Army.

After he finished basic training in Missouri, and advanced training in Arizona and Hawaii, he was deployed to Iraq in 2007. “I was supposed to be on a year-and-a-half tour, but it got extended to a two-and-a-half-year tour, and the day I was finally supposed to come home, I got a blood clot,” said Scott, who is now 42.

He had suffered a deep vein thrombosis, and because of the lack of blood flow to his heart and brain, he passed out within seconds. Sitting for an extended time in small quarters — as Scott had often done in a tank — can bring on the condition. His brain was robbed of oxygen for at least 30 minutes, causing a severe brain injury, which left him unable to walk and with very few motor skills and no short-term memory.

As a result of the incident, Scott was transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and eventually to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he has been recovering, but still suffers from comprehensive and short-term memory loss. He spends most of his time in therapy, and is part of a Wounded Warriors back-to-work program there. He looks forward to working in intelligence or finance someday.

While caring for her only son during the early days of his stay at Walter Reed, Robert’s mother, Valence Scott, quit her job as a human resources director to focus on his treatment. She bonded with other mothers of the wounded, and wrote a book with nine others called “Unbreakable Bonds,” which tells the story of the 10 and their children. Valence is also involved with the Elizabeth Dole Fellow program, which raises awareness of the needs of military and veteran caregivers across the country.