I served in the US Army guarding convoys on the sometimes bomb-strewn and often chaotic streets of Iraq. On December 2, 2006, the armored vehicle I was driving struck an Improvised Explosive Device, or IED. The blast severely wounded me and one other soldier in the vehicle while luckily only lightly injuring a third. The next three years of my life were a succession of hospitals and surgeries that began in Tikrit, Baghdad, and Germany and finally ended in Fort Carson, Colorado. In that time, I physically healed, at least as best I ever would, and also worked to rebuild a sense of purpose and find a new road ahead. That would be my most important task after the Army medically retired me in 2009. Since then, I’ve built a second career as a college professor that might seem totally different from the first, but often leans on the same resiliency and leadership skills as the first.
The Iraq War
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