Walding was grateful to be alive. But late that night he began wondering about his future.
Hours earlier, when he was rushed into the hospital, doctors didn’t know if he was going to live.
When he arrived in Bagram, his temperature was dropping. Three times on the operating table, his heart stopped beating. But the doctors wouldn’t give up. Each time he flatlined on the operating table, they resuscitated him.
Finally, they were able to stabilize him. But they also amputated his badly damaged leg below the knee. On the battlefield, he knew his leg was probably lost. Still, when he woke up, it was shocking to see it was no longer there. He knew his life had changed.
He had worked so hard to join Special Forces. For the first time in his life, he’d felt special. That he was giving back to the country he loved.
Now here he was, in the hospital, without a leg. He’d made a promise on the ledge to keep fighting—and he had. He’d fought to stay alive there. He fought to stay alive in the operating room.
But he knew the hard part was ahead.
For all intents and purposes, his Special Forces career was over. Sure he wouldn’t be discharged. He would stay in the Army. But he knew he would probably never go on a mission again.
He was still groggy when Lieutenant Colonel Ashley visited him in the recovery room. Walding’s first question was about his career.
“Hey, sir, am I going to have to leave the unit?”
“No, John. You’re not. That is not even something you need to be thinking about,” Ashley said.
“Well, good. With a name like John Wayne Walding, what else would I do?”
Still, he wondered how his family was going to deal with the injury. How would his wife react? He would need special care—at least for the short term. He would have to be taken care of—a big responsibility.
At the core of his discontent: He didn’t want to depend on anyone. It ran counter to his moral code. He was supposed to protect others. That’s was his responsibility. Hours removed from the firefight, he was finding it hard to think clearly. But at least he knew he would be there for his wife and children. He would always have his family. And for Walding, that was the most important thing.
And no matter what happened on his journey, he vowed to himself to keep fighting.