In case you don’t know my story, I was serving as a bomb technician in the United States Army a little over 10 years ago when an enemy IED detonated directly beneath me.
Soon after, amid a cloud of dirt and very little moonlight, I could hear the chatter over my radio: EOD (my call sign) was hit. As I lay there, my guys applied tourniquets to both of my legs and my left arm. They moved me quickly across the challenging terrain to the landing zone rendering me one final salute as the helicopter took off. Their selfless acts of courage are the only reason that I am still here today.
A few days later, I awoke in Walter Reed Army Medical Center unsure of where I was or what had happened. The next few weeks were a blur of surgeries and recovery. But, through it all, I knew that I could not accept a fate where the most meaningful work of my life was behind me.
So, I learned to walk again. And then I learned to run. And then I set my sights on running for public office to continue my fight defending our nation from enemies both foreign and domestic. Although I may no longer be an asset on the battlefield in Afghanistan, I found a new battlefield to fight on in the halls of Congress!
I am grateful that each and every day, I get to wake up and continue to serve the United States of America. The freedoms we have here are found nowhere else, and they are worth fighting for!
