SAN ANTONIO (AP) - For some of the hundreds of soldiers who have been treated at a Central Texas hospital and burn unit for injuries from Iraq, a reminder that they're not forgotten in the war came during a benefit for caregivers and patients.

Many of the 531 soldiers treated at Brooke Army Medical Center since the war's start have been discharged, while others remain under treatment, with seven in the famed burn unit.

Some troops who are being treated received an ovation from a crowd of 300 at an annual barbecue held Friday by Fort Sam Houston's Fisher House.

"It shows that the people are really thinking about the soldiers over there that were wounded," said Carrie Armour as she stood behind her son Jamvis, a 24-year-old father of three from Pensacola, Fla., who sat in a wheelchair.

Armour, an Army specialist, lost his right arm below the elbow when Iraqis ambushed his fuel truck. The May 28 attack in Baghdad began when Iraqis fired a rocket-propelled grenade into his side of the fuel truck. He is recovering from shrapnel wounds to his face, burns to both legs and a broken left leg.

"The hard part is just trying to get through this," he told the San Antonio Express-News in Saturday's editions.

Pfc. Justin Mooers, 22, of Swampscott, Mass., lost his right leg below the knee and suffered burns elsewhere when his head touched a power line in Europe. It sent 17,000 volts through his body, blowing him 30 feet from the train he was on. He said he was near death, once seeing a bright light and a long-dead uncle at his side.

"He smiled," said Mooers. "I woke up."

Armour, Mooers and Spc. Robert Jackson, 22, of Sparta, Wis., sat in wheelchairs and talked after BAMC's commander, Brig. Gen. C. William Fox Jr., declared it was lunchtime. Hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, potato salad, soft drinks and cake were served at the benefit honoring the memory of Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher, who began building homes like Fort Sam's Fisher House in the early 1990s.

Staff Sgt. Rashaan Canady, 26, of New York, standing behind the wounded soldiers, had lost his right arm at the elbow in a rocket-propelled grenade attack that killed Capt. Tristan Aitken of San Antonio. Canaday said he now splits his time between college classes and counseling wounded soldiers, among them Armour.

"Smiles are like Band-Aids," Canady observed. "They cover the wounds."