It's hard to keep a good Marine down, apparently.
Gunnery Sergeant William "Spanky" Gibson lost most of his left leg in May, 2006. He was on foot patrol in Ramadi, Iraq.
He could have gotten a desk job, back in America. But he didn't. Sergeant Gibson is back in Iraq, his second tour, on active duty with his fellow-Marines.
Getting back on his feet, with an assortment of artificial legs for different functions, took work and determination.
"I realized, well, it ain't growing back, so let's start recovering," Sergeant Gibson said. "Initially, I didn't allow it to affect me to the point of despair ... Now, I roll over and look at my wife and say, this kind of sucks. But you get over it quickly."
Two months after he was shot, Gunnery Sergeant Gibson was back at Camp Lejeune. While training there, he decided that he needed to go back to Iraq. "It's in part to show appreciation to my fallen Marines and also to tell the people of this country that ... I'm back to help you in any way I can, again."
Today's Iraq isn't the country he left, almost two years ago.
"The country itself, it's changed tremendously," he said. "I don't know if I ever thought I'd see it, but I hoped that our actions here ... would allow that change to happen, and now seeing it, it's amazing."
He looks at what's happening in Iraq as the rebirth of a country. "This is where we were 232 years ago as a new nation," he said. "Now they're starting a new nation, and that's 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.' "
Hats off to Gunnery Sergeant Gibson, and all the other soldiers and technicians who are helping Iraqis put their country back together after decades of a tyrant's mismanagement: And helping keep America safe.
Quotes from "Iraq War Marine With Amputated Leg Back in Active Duty" FOXNews (February 28, 2008)
Related posts, on Individuals and the War on Terror.
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