Here’s the truth - all I have ever wanted to do was serve my country. This is a call to serve that was passed down to me from my father and grandfather. It led me to serving as a bomb tech in the United States Army (who is also celebrating their 247th birthday today, by the way).
While I was serving, clearing a path for my fellow soldiers on a battlefield in Afghanistan, the last bomb that I discovered detonated directly beneath me.
If you’re familiar with my story, you’ll know what happened next…
I woke up later on in Walter Reed Hospital with two gaping holes where my legs used to be.
I could’ve given up right then and there. But my call to serve told me to keep fighting. So I did.
I learned to walk again on metal legs, graduated from Harvard, and today, I continue to serve the country that I love as a representative for the American people in the halls of Congress.
I NEVER forget, though, that while my life may have been spared, countless heroes before me did in fact pay the ultimate sacrifice fighting for the Stars and Stripes.
That is why I will always stand proud on my metal legs for that flag. It represents freedom that is found nowhere else on the planet. Freedom that is worth fighting and - yes - even dying for.
