Josh Hall made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and says he would do it all over again, if he had the chance.
While securing an area in Afghanistan taken from the Taliban last summer, Hall, 23, stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device and lost his left leg in the blast, WJHL reports. The resilient soldier spent months recovering at Walter Reed, a time he describes as one of his darkest, because he was laying idly while his fellow servicemen continued pursuing their duties.
But Hall has no regrets. He told the news outlet that he’s considering going to medical school to become a trauma surgeon and says he would return to combat if he could.
"I did my job. I got to bleed for my country," he told WJHL. "And I'd do it all over again."
For committed servicemen who have been gravely injured like Hall, there actually are options for continuing to serve.
After Joel Booth, a naval combat medic, had his right leg amputated below the knee after stepping on an IED, he vowed to remain a part of the military, according to the Associated Press.
He started working for Strategic Operations, a group that offers the military "hyper-realistic" war training by using special effects and actors to recreate combat scenes from Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones. Since its inception, Strategic Operations has trained hundreds of thousands of troops.
"The visual effect is invaluable because it's something you don't encounter every day,” Lt. Blank, an Iraq war veteran who has gone through similar training, told the AP. "There is no way to recreate that aspect of real combat, seeing a brother hurt in that sort of way."
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