 After 9-11 happened I tried to get back in the military but it was very difficult. But in 2004 a US Army recruiter told me that he would be able to get me in and he got me enlisted and I ended up down Fort Benning, Georgia and then right after Airborne School I went ahead and joined my unit and immediately had received my orders to deploy to Iraq. In February 2006 I was on a mission going towards Fallujah on the MSR road that we were on and coming up to what was called the 6-11 bridge we got hit by a roadside bomb to the side of the Humvee that I was in and blew the door into my left arm and pretty much my left side and damaged my left arm and my left leg. And while at Fort Irwin California my injuries kept progressing so they sent me to the Warrior Transition Unit with other injured soldiers and I had undergone four more surgical procedures on my leg. That's when the Army decided to go ahead and give me not just a medical discharge but I got a medical retirement and I went through four more years of surgical procedures to save the left leg. September 2013 is when the VA surgeon decided there was nothing more they can do for my leg and I had a choice to either continue with what I had until it failed or go ahead with an above knee amputation. After I had the amputation I was at the Ann Arbor amputee clinic and I was looking at all the other veterans that are amputees over there and there was about 25 veterans total but many of those other veterans had been there for three, four, five months already and that was something that I refused to do and being that I had four kids and a wife there was no way I was going to sit there all week long every week for months at a time and have my kids wonder where I'm at. Since my amputation my life has actually gotten better. I fight harder, I work harder and I have a better outlook on life just because of being able to overcome what I've been able to overcome and I always have the mentality of pain only lasts temporarily, happiness lasts forever. If being a veteran and doing what we did if we have that determination to do what we did we should have the self-determination to overcome any type of adversity that comes our way. I started powerlifting in February and that first June I won my first Nationals went to my first World Championships, placed sixth at my first World Championships won my second Nationals the next June and placed fourth in that World Championships and then on my third World Championships I ended up placing first and so it's not a matter of disability, it's a matter of mind and if you want to overcome something you can. Even though I'm an above knee amputee I don't use it as a crutch to keep myself from competing with regular people and I don't use it as an excuse to not power lift and I want my kids to see that hey it doesn't matter what injury illness occurs you can still compete with the best on any level. Yes I'm an above knee amputee however having a disability just means it's just a little bit harder than the average Joe so it's not going to stop me from doing what I want to do it's not going to stop me from accomplishing what I want to accomplish in life.