McALESTER, Okla. -- As a proud, patriotic American, you'll have to excuse one lead security guard at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant if Independence Day doesn't bring back the best of memories.
In 2011, just one day after the nation celebrated its independence, William Poe sustained injuries from three separate improvised explosive device blasts while serving with his Oklahoma Army National Guard unit in Afghanistan.
A sergeant first class with Company A, 1-279th Infantry Battalion based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Poe regained consciousness while receiving transfusions during the medevac flight. He woke up two days later in the 352nd Combat Support Hospital, 807th Medical Command, at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan.
"I couldn't walk," he said. "I had a really bad day and my body hurt real bad."
It was his tenth combat deployment. Poe had arrived in Afghanistan -- his first and only tour there -- at Forward Operating Base Zormat, July 4. As he and his troops arrived, others were moving out on a mission. They hopped on the truck and went out the gate without even eating a meal or seeing their FOB, he said.
His platoon undertook a clearing operation when they arrived at a valley in Paktia Province. As he was ground-guiding a miner roller, it hit an IED. The blast threw him back against a vehicle, blew apart the mine roller and ripped the front wheels off another.
"When I woke up, the medic was giving me a [military acute concussion evaluation] test," Poe said. "He wanted to medevac me, but I refused."
As the senior leader on the ground there, Poe instead chose to remain and radioed for a wrecker.
When the wrecker arrived with a military police escort, Poe said it sped past him before he could inform the driver the other side of the road had not been cleared. Sensing a possible IED, he had just enough time to yell to his troops to take cover moments before an explosion.
"It was a catastrophic kill on the vehicle and killed all four personnel, and wounded myself and two others on the ground," the infantry platoon sergeant said.
Poe was bleeding from his nose and had sustained a concussion from being thrown 35 feet.
Shortly thereafter, he said insurgents blew up the only bridge into the valley. Still reeling from the blast, Poe processed the dead, set up a landing zone, and radioed for helicopters to pick up the dead and wounded.
When the helicopters that arrived were full, he again chose to remain behind.
Soldiers at the scene were working to recover the engine block from the vehicle destroyed by the second IED. It was being pulled toward the wrecker when it detonated yet another IED. The blast instantly killed two Afghan Soldiers and wounded four others.
After talking to the Afghan Army commander who had just finished interrogating an insurgent, Poe began to condense his perimeter and place his weapons and vehicles in the best tactical position. As he guided one of them into place, it also struck an IED.
He spent the next 29 days recuperating from his injuries in the 352nd Combat Support Hospital. He refused a medical evacuation to Germany and returned to his unit as a platoon sergeant before he eventually became the company's acting first sergeant.
Three months before the end of his deployment, Poe fell 53 feet down an aqueduct before wedging his legs across the other side to stop his fall. He injured his back, head and neck.
"I didn't lose any sensitive items," the 42-year-old Bixby, Oklahoma native said with a laugh about the fall. "That was the first thing I checked. I'd been an infantryman for 24 years and had never lost a sensitive item. I wasn't going to then, either."
On March 28, 2012, three weeks after the fall, he was put on a medevac flight to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit.
For the next two years, he underwent rehabilitation for a traumatic brain injury, and injuries to his lower back, left ankle and both knees, and his right hip that popped out of its joint.
"I had like 17 CAT scans," Poe said. "I had MRIs. They would give tests while they were giving me CAT scans… It was horrible."
After six months, Poe said his doctor's appointments were two weeks apart and he entered an internship with the Drug Enforcement Agency, where he performed intelligence and aerial surveillance duties, until his rehabilitation was complete and he was released from the WTU.
"I fought in every war we've had since 1989," he said. "Everybody gave me crap after my third deployment and said 'three strikes and you're out, buddy.' I just kept rolling the dice."
It all came to an end April 20, 2014, when he was medically retired from the Army after 26 years of active, reserve and Army National Guard service.
Six days later, the resilient retired Soldier returned to his civilian position at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. After starting working at MCAAP in October 2010, he was only on the job for three months when he was put on active duty to begin the train up with his unit for their deployment.
Poe said he didn't have to return to his civilian job. He is co-owner of a 1,100-acre ranch with 300 cattle in Glenpool, Oklahoma, that keeps him busy, but he felt an obligation.
"The person I became today is because of the Army, so I felt like I needed to give back to the Army for all they've done for me," he said.
MCAAP is the Department of Defense's premier bomb and warhead loading facility, and is one of 14 industrial facilities in the Joint Munitions Command. It is vital to ammunition stockpile management and delivery to the joint warfighter for training and combat operations.
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