Veteran turns tragedy into triumph after IED blast

In Vietnam, most of our injuries and deaths were caused by bullets. It seems that in Afghanistan, the majority of injuries and deaths were caused by IEDs (improvised explosive devices), or bombs hidden in roads and trails. This is the story of Staff Sgt. Travis Mills, U.S. Army.

He is a big guy, 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds. He was married with two children, and he had two previous tours in Afghanistan and didn't have to go back, but he requested to go back to be with his "guys" and also since he was a paratrooper, he got extra pay for that and extra pay for combat.

It was on his third tour, April 10, 2012, that a nearby village elder called about IED threats in the area — a pretty typical call, he said. He was out on patrol with his men, a mine-sweeping guy in the lead, they were single file. The mine-sweeping soldier didn't find anything and announced the area was secure, but it wasn't.

Mills' backpack weighed 120 pounds, loaded with ammo, grenades and a machine gun. With the area supposedly secure, the men took a break. He took off his backpack and set it down on an IED, and it went off.

He woke up on the ground, his ears ringing and the sun shining in his face. He said, "I lifted up my left arm and it had been practically severed off. I roll over, my right arm and my right leg are gone. My left leg is snapped at the bone, only held together by muscle, tendon and skin."

Other soldiers were also injured; he was worried about his men. He said to the medic, "Go save them first." The medic said, "With all due respect, shut up." A second medic arrived to attend to Sgt. Mills and the others. A helicopter came to evacuate them to the hospital.

When they arrived, he said, "My leg and arm, where are they, so they can be reattached?" The nurse said to him, "Honey, they are gone." He then said, "My baby girl, am I ever going to see her again?" Then the drugs set in and he passed out.

The surgery took 14 hours with nine doctors and seven nurses. He took so much blood the blood bank ran out, so hospital staff started giving him their blood, and he lived. When it was all over, both of his legs were gone. His right arm had been amputated at mid-bicep and the skin on his left hand had died, so they amputated his hand. Now with all four limbs gone, he was officially a quadruple amputee.

He had big plans: finish his college degree, go back to jump school as an instructor, retire as a major with a great pension. Now all that was gone. He went through serious PTSD, but eventually recovered and became a great speaker, was hired by corporations to speak, etc. He moved to Maine where he owned a business and became a success despite what had happened to him.