Marine Amputee Returns To Duty In Iraq

Team Infidel

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
This is really cool. I am so happy that they are letting them continue to serve.

NBC
April 13, 2008
NBC Nightly News, 6:30 PM
LESTER HOLT: This has been the deadliest week of the year for U.S. forces in Iraq. The Marine you’re about to meet knows all too well what can happen in the war zone.
But as NBC’s Ned Colt reports, Gunnery Sgt. William Gibson, known to his fellow Marines as Spanky, has become an inspiration to others as he returns for another tour of duty.
NED COLT: Two months shy of his 37th birthday, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Spanky Gibson still has a spring in his step.
So what’s it like to be back?
GUNNERY SGT. WILLIAM “SPANKY” GIBSON: Oh, it’s outstanding. It’s awesome to be back here amongst Marines, combat zone. It’s a circle of recovery.
COLT: Two years ago, no one, including Spanky, ever dreamed he’d be back. Then he was on the frontline near Ramadi, leading a squad calling in air support to root out insurgents.
GIBSON: Overlooking 38 zone.
COLT: Constantly under fire, snipers took their toll. And just three days after these scenes were taped, it was Spanky Gibson who went down. A sniper’s bullet shattered his left kneecap.
GIBSON: It basically destroyed the whole knee socket.
COLT: And severed your femoral artery you said.
GIBSON: Exactly.
COLT: Spanky was awarded the Purple Heart. Ultimately, he lost the leg.
GIBSON: I would beg the surgeons every time they would come in – just cut it off, close me up, get me out of here.
COLT: It was a loss that would stop most of us in our tracks, but Spanky fought back. In just five months he finished rehab and armed with a new leg, tackled new challenges, getting back on skis, ice-climbing, biking and triathlons.
GIBSON: Soon as a person says his disabled and they think they’re disabled, they might as well keep their butt in a chair and not do anything for the rest of their life.
COLT: And he persuaded the Marines and a supportive wife and daughter in Oklahoma –
GIBSON: Hey, what you doing?
COLT: – that he could still do the job. He’s the first full-leg amputee ever to return to duty in a war zone.
GIBSON: It’s my life. It’s what I love. For me at least, being a Marine means being prepared to go into conflict.
COLT: Prepared with a $90,000 computerized leg, he does a similar job but now inside the base where he works harder than ever to be just another Marine.
MASTER SGT. SOLOMON REED, USMC: You may be down sometimes, but you look at him and say, you know, it is what it’s all about. So it’s an inspiration to the Marines.
COLT: And maybe inspirational to some of the other 30,000 Americans wounded in the war, who could be emboldened by the life of Gunnery Sgt. Spanky Gibson.
GIBSON: I think it’s made me a lot stronger.
COLT: Ned Colt, NBC News, Fallujah, Iraq.
Click to expand...
 
He's one of the many reasons people actually respect the Marines.
I think the military should seriously think twice before letting go of people who have been seriously wounded in the line of duty. As prosthetics are getting better, if the guy can hack the regular physical requirements, he should be allowed in again.
 
agreed, and how is EPICTRIP? my parents might be flying to Europe soon.

Some of these people with injuries are more motivated individuals and have more dedication then most regulars.
 
Epictrip's alright.

And I agree... sometimes the only way to truly appreciate something is to lose it or come very close to losing it.
 
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