re: #237 Dark_Falcon
Hey Dark_Falcon - from your link:

That’s where Operation Mend came in.

A one-of-kind partnership between the UCLA medical Center and Brooke, the program provides reconstructive surgery to members of the military who’ve been severely disfigured in Iraq and Afghanistan. So far, 24 men and women have been treated.
At Brooke, Mikeworth endured about 16 surgeries, many on the lower right arm that he almost lost in the blast.

Mikeworth’s road to recovery has been part medical marvel, part profile in courage — the stalwart soldier who rebuilds his confidence as doctors rebuild his face.

All along, as UCLA surgeons have tucked and trimmed, adding a bit of cartilage here, a flap of skin there.

“I was pretty gruesome in the beginning,” he says. “I looked like I came out of some Halloween horror movie. I know that. Sometimes if I was having a bad day, I’d get mad at the situation I found myself in, but I would never get angry at the people.”

But his appearance didn’t faze his sons, Ryan, 7, and Connor, 6.

They brought laughter into the home when they returned from a two-month stay with his wife’s parents in Illinois.

Sgt. Mikeworth hopes to join an Army unit by summer. He’s on medical hold while he looks for a suitable slot. He’s thinking about military intelligence or becoming an instructor.

“I don’t want to be put on a shelf or a back burner, or left in a corner anywhere,” he says.

[emphasis realwest]
I still am amazed that America continues to find such fine men and woman who are so willing to defend her. And I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I am with with UCLA and Brooke. Now if only more private hospitals would pitch in, that would be just great.
And I thank Sgt Mikeworth for his service and his inspiration.