Photo By Master Sgt. Joseph Vine | During Operation Proper Exit X, retired Sgt. Saul Martinez explores the Ba’athist...... read more read more
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Retired Sgt. Saul Martinez surfs, teaches swim classes, goes fly-fishing and has a wife and two children. He lives a normal life in Bozeman, Mont. He just happens to live his life on prosthetic legs.
Martinez was serving with the 3rd Infantry Division when his unit deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, Iraq. May 8, 2007 was the day that changed his life, and cut his career short.
“At about 8:00 am we were travelling south on Route Detroit when we were hit,” said Martinez. “It was about a four to six-charge explosive formed projectile, with each one being 10 to 12 inches in diameter.”
“When we got hit, it was the most thunderous and indescribable noise you could imagine,” he said. “The impact was almost like being hit by a semi-truck.”
Martinez hit the top of the crow’s nest in the gunner’s hatch and fell inside the humvee lying down. As he looked to his lower body, he could see the damaged the blast caused.
“My right leg was unrecognizable because of the way it was damaged by the blast,” said Martinez. “My left leg was mangled all the way up to my knee; it looked like a leg but it was catastrophic.”
The EFP had punched through the side of Martinez’s humvee killing his truck commander, Sgt. Blake Stephens, and driver, Spc. Kyle Little.
“We rolled for a little bit after the blast, but before the truck came to a stop my medic, Pfc. Stephanie McCully, was already there,” said Martinez. “She ran through the smoke and up to the truck before everything was clear. She had total disregard for her own safety.”
“I was unconscious for about a minute after the blast, but Stephanie reached her hand under my vest and felt that I was breathing,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but one of the charges hit my right glut. It was the worst of my bleeding and was hard to stop. Stephanie grabbed all the dressing she could, balled it up in her fist and shoved it right up into the wound. She held it there for about 15 minutes before the medevac came. The whole time she was trying to keep me calm. She was telling me that I was going to be OK and that I was going to see Sarah, my wife.”
“She didn’t skip a beat,” he said. “She did what she had to do and was my hero that day.”
About a year after Martinez was injured he was offered a job as a squad leader at the Warrior Transition Unit in San Diego and recently started working with organizations that help wounded service members.
“I work with a fly-fishing organization that provides therapeutic outings on rivers for wounded service members,” said Martinez. “I also volunteer with another organization that provides recreational therapy in various forms. I’m in charge of a swim program that they just started. I will be teaching wounded guys how to swim and give them a workout while I’m at it.”
Martinez also volunteered to participate in Operation Proper Exit X, which took place from June 26 to July 2. OPE X has given him and six other wounded service members a chance to return to Iraq, visit the sites where they were injured and leave on their terms.
“This trip has been indescribable. The emotional benefit has been amazing,” said Martinez. “It’s also been peaceful; I don’t know what it is, but being around the soldiers and being around other wounded guys works.”
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.07.2011 07:27 |
| Story ID: | 73341 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 154 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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