FORT GORDON, Ga. -- Spc. Timothy Hall was assigned to Company E, 369th Signal Battalion from June 3, to Sept. 23, 2009 where he was trained as a 25U1O Signal Support Specialist. Hall was assigned to the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion out of Bamburg, Germany and almost immediately deployed to Afghanistan.
He was injured in a mortar attack June 9, 2010. He was standing in line at the Post Exchange in Kabul, Afghanistan, when a mortar blast blew him back 20 feet. He nearly bled to death.
His mother, Tammy Hamrey, said it took “over 300 units of blood just to keep him alive.” He was resuscitated several times in Afghanistan, flown to Germany, and eventually to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he woke up from heavy sedation to learn both legs were amputated, his left leg up to his groin area and his right leg up to his hip.
He also lost part of his pelvic bone. He would expect 2-3 years of physical and occupational therapy and eventually be fitted with prosthetics to be able to walk again. He looked at his mother and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” she said.
“Look at me,” he said.
“Would you rather be dead or alive?”
“Alive.”
“Then don’t ever say you’re sorry again.”
Since that decisive moment, Tim has been unstoppable.
When asked “If you had it to do over again, knowing what was going to happen, would you still have enlisted in the Army?”
He said he would, and that it would be a great honor to do so.
Appearances can be deceiving. Who would have thought a 21-year-old enlisted Soldier who lost both legs and nearly his life would be known for his smile and upbeat attitude, a Soldier Sen. Harry Reid said “inspired him” and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval called “my hero”?