With Memorial Day a week away, many Americans are thinking of killed and wounded soldiers in their lives. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been badly hurt fighting in Afghanistan over the last 15 years. Western New England University’s Courtney Miller reports on one.
Ruben Gomez has his weekday schedule down. The 35-year-old from Manahawkin, New Jersey works his shift at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant until 4 p.m. He then goes home to help his son with homework and cook dinner for his family. It all seems routine now, but Gomez is not like the other fathers on the block. Gomez has been enlisted in the Army since he was in high school. And his tour of duty stays with him every day.
“I actually enlisted in the Army back in July of 1997. I was like a few days after my 17th birthday, I had to get a, my parents', a waiver signed by my parents. It was the summer before my senior year so I was on a delayed program, and in the delayed program I actually drove with the local National Guard Unit while I was still actively in high school.”
Unlike his teenage peers, Gomez took a different path after graduating from high school.
“One week to the day after I graduated high school, the following year, I left for basic training and medic school after that. I chose to go into the military for college, honestly. That was my, my biggest thing was to have somebody pay for college. My parents didn’t have a whole lot of money, so at the time, I was between the Army and the Marines. And the Army just offered more for school.”
The Army life eventually got in the way of Gomez’s education. 17 years later, he's enrolled at his local community college working toward his bachelor’s degree.
“My first deployment was in the spring of 2003, for the initial invasion of Iraq. I was in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, we moved around quite a bit...I was 22 years old, I was the youngest person on my team and I was probably like, probably one of the youngest ones in my company at the time. And as far as being a medic, I just took care of my guys.”
And years later, his guys took care of Gomez. They saved his life.
“I just came in from a patrol that went way longer than it needed to. For a lot of different reasons, and I came in and dropped my stuff, went out of our hard building that we had and was going to another hard building that we had. Uhm, where I would get some food and Skype with my fiancee. And, uh, as I was coming out a 107 rocket came in and was launched from the nearby mountain ridge which they liked to do. It’s indirect fire, they don’t even aim them. They just kind of lob them in and see where it goes.”
That rocket shot right into Gomez.
“It hit me, hit me in the leg, and threw me about 15-20 feet or so...with that, I mean I still remained conscious, I tried, it knocked the wind out of me. I landed on my neck, I tried to crawl myself to the hard structure where I was originally trying to go towards. One of my guys ended up actually seeing me, grabbed me, brought me in. Luckily, there were three medics that were there that had just gotten off another patrol.”
Gomez wasn’t immediately aware of his injuries. He later learned his left leg would be amputated from the knee down.
"I had 29 surgeries overall, to include my amputation. Out of the 29 surgeries, I had two vein grafts, four transfusions, they rebuilt my femur, I had six infections that I had to deal with. I also went anemic three times. And just a lot of nerve issues up until the amputation, which the amputation didn’t happen for about two years, two and a half years.”
After losing his leg, Gomez is finding another way to live his life to the fullest.
“I have become even more active since my amputation then I was even before. I’ve always done jiu-jitsu, boxing, and I got back into that after my amputation. I became an advanced scuba diver, and then now I’m actually, I’ve been very active with skydiving. It’s become my new passion. About almost two years ago, I ran into an organization while I was down at Walter Reed called ‘Operation Enduring Warrior’ and they actually offered to sponsor me for a tandem, just a regular tandem jump at an event that they had for Wounded Warriors down in Suffolk, Virginia...Fell in love with it so much, I was talking with them afterwards and they offered to sponsor me for my entire license which is about 3 grand and about 25 jumps...Today was my 89th jump.”
Gomez continues to skydive and hopes to be there for his son’s first jump when he turns 18. His Purple Heart has helped him overcome the daily struggles of a Wounded Warrior, and he's now taking advantage of his second chance at life. He hopes his story will inspire others to work through any obstacles they may face. And he knows, planning for his 90th jump, the sky is not the limit.