bobdina
06-09-2009, 01:00 PM
Amputee soldier helps anchor parachute team
By Michelle Tan
mtan@militarytimes.com
Sgt. Max Ramsey felt a pop in his left knee as the force of an exploding 155mm artillery round ripped through his Humvee and lifted it into the air.
It was March 1, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq. Ramsey, then a private first class with 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, had moved from his seat behind the driver into the turret because the gunner had dismounted to help set up an observation post.
After the blast, Ramsey remembers holding on to his badly mangled left leg and looking down through the hole that had been the seat behind the driver.
Doctors amputated Ramsey’s leg at the combat support hospital in Baghdad.
“I knew before I got out of the Humvee I was going to lose my leg,” Ramsey said. “I came to terms with that very quickly.” Ramsey, 39, spent a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center ’s Ward 57 and took his first steps on March 27, 2006, less than one month after he was wounded.
Six months later, the avid skydiver, who had completed about 350 jumps before he joined the Army in 2004, returned to the skies, making his first jump as an amputee . On the one year anniversary of the explosion, Ramsey returned to duty at Fort Campbell, Ky.
For the past two years, Ramsey has been a member of the 101st Airborne Division’s parachute demonstration team, an inspiration to soldiers who are surviving more devastating combat wounds than in any other war in history.
“He’s the heart of the team,” Sgt. 1st Class Larry Jarrett, the parachute demonstration team leader, said about Ramsey, who has done 600 jumps since losing his leg.
On April 30, the team jumped from a C-23 Sherpa onto the front lawn of Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., a rehearsal for the team’s participation in the hospital’s centennial on May 1.
After the rehearsal, Ramsey was asked to speak to a fellow soldier who recently lost his leg in combat. It’s something Ramsey will happily do, and he often volunteers as a peer visitor for other wounded veterans.
By Michelle Tan
mtan@militarytimes.com
Sgt. Max Ramsey felt a pop in his left knee as the force of an exploding 155mm artillery round ripped through his Humvee and lifted it into the air.
It was March 1, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq. Ramsey, then a private first class with 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, had moved from his seat behind the driver into the turret because the gunner had dismounted to help set up an observation post.
After the blast, Ramsey remembers holding on to his badly mangled left leg and looking down through the hole that had been the seat behind the driver.
Doctors amputated Ramsey’s leg at the combat support hospital in Baghdad.
“I knew before I got out of the Humvee I was going to lose my leg,” Ramsey said. “I came to terms with that very quickly.” Ramsey, 39, spent a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center ’s Ward 57 and took his first steps on March 27, 2006, less than one month after he was wounded.
Six months later, the avid skydiver, who had completed about 350 jumps before he joined the Army in 2004, returned to the skies, making his first jump as an amputee . On the one year anniversary of the explosion, Ramsey returned to duty at Fort Campbell, Ky.
For the past two years, Ramsey has been a member of the 101st Airborne Division’s parachute demonstration team, an inspiration to soldiers who are surviving more devastating combat wounds than in any other war in history.
“He’s the heart of the team,” Sgt. 1st Class Larry Jarrett, the parachute demonstration team leader, said about Ramsey, who has done 600 jumps since losing his leg.
On April 30, the team jumped from a C-23 Sherpa onto the front lawn of Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., a rehearsal for the team’s participation in the hospital’s centennial on May 1.
After the rehearsal, Ramsey was asked to speak to a fellow soldier who recently lost his leg in combat. It’s something Ramsey will happily do, and he often volunteers as a peer visitor for other wounded veterans.