I joined the United States Army when I was 17 years old. As a career soldier, I was deployed to Iraq as sergeant of a personal security detail unit, responsible for the safety of dignitaries, groups of Iraqi civilians, and platoons of American soldiers.
On January 4, 2006, while overseeing civilians, we received word of a potential vehicle explosion attack. As predicted, a semi-truck approached our location, running through first line defenses, and creating a mess of worried people — including at least 1,000 Iraqis under my team's care.
As I began briefing specialists on the situation, I saw a man, suited in a suicide vest. He detonated it.
By January 8, I was back in the States. Doctors found 81 ball bearings on my body; and I had broken both femurs, both hips, and both arms in several places. Doctors were unable to determine trauma to my skull and brain.
I was sent to Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., and wasn't released to go home to Utah until April 13. They told me I would never walk again, but on the trip home, I just decided to get up from my wheelchair. Sometimes those first steps are the hard ones.
I had been deemed unfit for duty and forced to retire from the Army. I was placed in a community-based health care organization, where I learned about Return 2 Work. I had no college education; I didn't know how to do anything, but be in the Army. There's no need for those skills in the civilian world. But what I learned was that my life experience is worth far more than education.
After trying to make it on my own without much luck, I was fortunate enough to meet Rob Brazell, president of R2W. I trained with him and the organization for a year. Now I am an employment specialist for R2W who can empathize with soldiers coming home without work or the ability to find a job. I can help them stand up from their wheelchairs, whatever that may mean for them. When you're in the Army, you're really fighting for the guys on your right and on your left. And through R2W, I am able to continue fighting for soldiers as they try to rejoin the lives they had once left behind."
Sgt. Braxton McCoy