Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
February 28, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: If the Marine Corps was looking for only one good man, it could not have done better, it seems, than a sergeant with the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah, who retuned to the fight in Iraq after losing one of his legs. National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin spoke with him in the war zone.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Spanky Gibson was a Marine gunnery sergeant in Ramadi when a sniper bullet ripped through his left knee. He never thought he’d walk again. That was 21 months ago. Now he is back in combat – the first full-leg amputee to return to active duty in a war zone.
GYSGT WILLIAM “SPANKY” GIBSON [U.S. Marine Corps]: I mean, I knew there was something seriously wrong with me. The round, lucky enough, severed the nerve so there was no pain. There was my first instinct – start returning fire, do the best you can. It didn’t truly set in to me until I was coherent in Bethesda and they’d already amputated. As soon as I realized, okay, well, it ain’t growing back, so let’s start recovering.
GRIFFIN: That’s when he started training for marathons. And then there was the escape from Alcatraz swim last July, where he saw Marine Lieutenant General James Mattis.
GIBSON: And when I came out of the water after a mile and a half swim, he asked me what he can do for me. And I said well, I’d like to deploy again.
GRIFFIN: Many asked him why. He has a wife and four-year-old daughter waiting for him in Oklahoma.
GIBSON: And this is where we were 232 years ago as a nation. Now they’re starting a new nation. That was one of my big reasons for coming back here. It wasn’t for other Marines to look at me and say, oh wow, you’re a tough guy. You’re an above-knee amputee and you’re coming back. It has nothing to do with that. It’s part to show appreciation to, one, my fellow service members – fallen marines – and then to tell the people in this country that I’m willing to come back here to a place that some people might think that you’ve been maimed by and show appreciation enough to say, hey, no, I’m back here to help in whatever way I can, again.
GRIFFIN: He landed at the same base from where he had been medevaced home.
GIBSON:It was strange at first carrying all my gear, wearing my combat load. They’re all firsts now. You take the first step. You take the first bath. You take the first bike ride. So to get on a helicopter again and get on the military transport, it’s recovery. It’s the loop. It’s the cycle. When you come to realization that, hey, I’m back.
GRIFFIN: But he doesn’t want special treatment. He coordinates firepower response for the troops in the field from Fallujah’s operations center.
GIBSON: I brought five legs with me. I brought two different running legs and then two mechanical back-ups and then my primary. I take a shower in the same facility that the Marines take their showers in. I do everything the may they do it, minus just taking my leg off and hopping into the shower. I’m still 21 months into my injury. It’s kind of feeling out what’s the steps that the man can take. What limitations might he still have? I don’t want to put any other Marines in harm’s way because I might be limited.
GRIFFIN: But not limited by courage and a sense of duty.
In Fallujah, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
February 28, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: If the Marine Corps was looking for only one good man, it could not have done better, it seems, than a sergeant with the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah, who retuned to the fight in Iraq after losing one of his legs. National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin spoke with him in the war zone.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Spanky Gibson was a Marine gunnery sergeant in Ramadi when a sniper bullet ripped through his left knee. He never thought he’d walk again. That was 21 months ago. Now he is back in combat – the first full-leg amputee to return to active duty in a war zone.
GYSGT WILLIAM “SPANKY” GIBSON [U.S. Marine Corps]: I mean, I knew there was something seriously wrong with me. The round, lucky enough, severed the nerve so there was no pain. There was my first instinct – start returning fire, do the best you can. It didn’t truly set in to me until I was coherent in Bethesda and they’d already amputated. As soon as I realized, okay, well, it ain’t growing back, so let’s start recovering.
GRIFFIN: That’s when he started training for marathons. And then there was the escape from Alcatraz swim last July, where he saw Marine Lieutenant General James Mattis.
GIBSON: And when I came out of the water after a mile and a half swim, he asked me what he can do for me. And I said well, I’d like to deploy again.
GRIFFIN: Many asked him why. He has a wife and four-year-old daughter waiting for him in Oklahoma.
GIBSON: And this is where we were 232 years ago as a nation. Now they’re starting a new nation. That was one of my big reasons for coming back here. It wasn’t for other Marines to look at me and say, oh wow, you’re a tough guy. You’re an above-knee amputee and you’re coming back. It has nothing to do with that. It’s part to show appreciation to, one, my fellow service members – fallen marines – and then to tell the people in this country that I’m willing to come back here to a place that some people might think that you’ve been maimed by and show appreciation enough to say, hey, no, I’m back here to help in whatever way I can, again.
GRIFFIN: He landed at the same base from where he had been medevaced home.
GIBSON:It was strange at first carrying all my gear, wearing my combat load. They’re all firsts now. You take the first step. You take the first bath. You take the first bike ride. So to get on a helicopter again and get on the military transport, it’s recovery. It’s the loop. It’s the cycle. When you come to realization that, hey, I’m back.
GRIFFIN: But he doesn’t want special treatment. He coordinates firepower response for the troops in the field from Fallujah’s operations center.
GIBSON: I brought five legs with me. I brought two different running legs and then two mechanical back-ups and then my primary. I take a shower in the same facility that the Marines take their showers in. I do everything the may they do it, minus just taking my leg off and hopping into the shower. I’m still 21 months into my injury. It’s kind of feeling out what’s the steps that the man can take. What limitations might he still have? I don’t want to put any other Marines in harm’s way because I might be limited.
GRIFFIN: But not limited by courage and a sense of duty.
In Fallujah, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.