North Alabama's celebration of the armed forces showed Howard Andrews that life had a lot more to offer for a wounded warrior who wanted to still serve his country.
Andrews, a medically retired staff sergeant who lost his left foot in 2004 when an improvised explosive device exploded in Iraq, experienced his first Armed Forces Celebration Week in 2005. At the time, he was still on active duty despite his injury, serving with the Missile Defense Agency.
"That first celebration was epic for me," he recalled. "It motivated me to join the local chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and before I knew it I was helping (retired Brig. Gen.) Bob Drolet and others put together Veterans Day and Memorial Day events, and then the next Armed Forces Celebration."
Andrews decided to medically retire in 2008. He now works for the Aviation and Missile Command's Integrated Materiel Management Center, where he supports the war fighter by providing equipment for command tactical operations centers in theater. He's only missed one Armed Forces Celebration Week since 2005, due to a work conflict. He is looking forward to this year's celebration, set for June 10-17.
"Helping with Armed Forces Celebration Week is a way that I can give back," Andrews said.
"When we Soldiers join, we don't join to be given accolades or to be showered with affection and ticker-tape parades. But, boy, it sure is nice when we get it. The patriotism here all year and especially during the Armed Forces Celebration Week is just awesome for veterans like me."
It was the patriotism of the area, a sense of belonging to the local veterans community and a few other things, such as the friendly people, the nice weather and the beautiful area, that convinced Andrews and his wife, who is from Germany, that Huntsville was the right place to retire.
"This is a great place to retire," he said. "I was seriously taken away with the amount of support I received and that my family received when I arrived here. North Alabama's love and patriotism for Soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen is the best.
"In this area, we found a community that we love. We found a community of like-minded veterans dedicated and still continuing to serve, and we don't want to leave. Nowhere in my experience have I come across a place like this. Everyone you talk to here has an enormous love for the military."
It was his injury that brought Andrews to Redstone Arsenal.
"My wife and I look back, and we are thankful that I was wounded because if I hadn't been wounded I wouldn't have been given the chance to come to Redstone," said Andrews, who lives in Hazel Green.
As a combat engineer, Andrews would have not been stationed at Redstone Arsenal. But his injury forced him to change his military occupational specialty, and that change led him to Redstone, and the life he and his family now enjoy.
Andrews' Soldier career as a combat engineer -- or sapper -- involved light infantry tactics, long range patrol and scouting. Sappers are trained for hit-and-run operations involving lots of explosives.
"Combat engineers are different from explosive ordnance Soldiers because EOD is trained to handle one or two items of explosive and to use a very deliberate approach to assess explosives before they go in and detonate them," Andrews said.
"A combat engineer is trained to walk right in and destroy explosives. We are trained to blow through a minefield."
The rough and tumble world of sappers fit this edgy, 21-year-old from southwest Alabama, who, in 1993, was looking for a way out of his small hometown and a way to support his young family. In 1994, he deployed to Idaho to help fight forest fires, and in 1996, he deployed to Arizona to build fences along the U.S. border.
"My first wartime deployment was to Kosovo in 1999," he said. "Prior to that, it had all been sort of fun. But Kosovo really woke me up and showed me the reality of serving in the Army. We spent our time getting ready to invade Serbia. We were locked and loaded, and it made me realize my mortality.
"Kosovo woke me up and my priorities changed. I had to make sure I got out alive and the Soldiers serving with me got out alive."
In 2001, he volunteered for a one-year deployment to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he was embedded with the British Royal Army and NATO forces.
"It was a dangerous mission to clear minefields and to supervise clearings by Bosnia and Serbia armies," he said. "We cleared minefields for tanks and infantry to come through."
And in 2004, Andrews went to Iraq with the 1st Infantry Division.
"We relieved the invasion forces," he said.
During a patrol on July 28, 2004, Andrews and his men were on a mission to secure routes north of Samarra when they located an IED. They were making plans to destroy the device and Andrews was making sure all his Soldiers were positioned on the safe side of their vehicle. He was about to get back in the vehicle when the IED blew up.
"The shrapnel went under the vehicle and sliced through my ankle, taking off my left foot and boot," he said.
"Even though I saw my boot flying through the air, I still managed to keep my Soldiers safe. My training kicked in. I thought 'Don't think about that. You have a job to do.' I wanted to make sure everyone was OK and they did their job. I was on the ground. But I was giving orders as they gave me an IV, put the tourniquet on me and tagged me for the medevac. I was barking out orders like I was in charge."
Thirteen surgeries later and with his foot buried by his unit in Iraq, Andrews can look back on those tough days and be grateful for the top-notch care and rehabilitation that he received. Today, he has no noticeable limp from his prosthesis.
"One thing I like about the Army is that it teaches you not to blame people. You blame yourself when something goes wrong. You take responsibility. When something bad happens, you think about what you did that made it happen," he said.
"You go through the mental checklist to figure out what you could have done differently. Sometimes it just comes down to, well, this is war and things happen in war."
After seven months of recovery at Walter Reed, Andrews received a medical retirement. He appealed it and won, becoming one of 12 Soldiers to participate in a test pilot to show that wounded warriors can remain on active duty despite their injuries.
But being stationed in Germany with his unit made it difficult to receive the continued care he needed through Tricare. After about six months, Andrews was assigned to Redstone, where, at first, he struggled with depression and the slower pace of a career that was much different from the high-stress and busy life of an Army sapper. But after three months, he began to realize the assignment was indeed a gift, providing him with time to spend with his wife and young son along with his two teenage children.
"I didn't want to leave here. The community is so wonderful to troops and there was work here that I could do in support of the troops," he said.
"My wife and I look back a lot and wonder what would have happened if I had been inside that vehicle when the IED went off. I would probably be on my ninth deployment, burned out and divorced. We look back and we're thankful that I was wounded. What happened to me brought us to Redstone Arsenal."
He plans on being an active volunteer for many years to come, enjoying the satisfaction of being involved with the Armed Forces Celebration Week and other patriotic events.
"I like giving back because that's what you do here and it gives you a great feeling," Andrews said.
"Once you have a near death experience, you have time to think about things. Have you made the right decisions in life? Are you making a mark in the world? When you do leave this world will it matter? I do take one day at a time. You can plan and you can dream about the future. But there's always going to be something that changes it, and for me that change was Iraq. Life threw me a curve ball, so I take it one day at a time now."
One day at a time working for the Army at Redstone is just about the right pace for this wounded warrior, who still loves the Army "for raising me into the man I am today."
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