Wounded Warriors share wicked sense of gallows humor

Wounded warriors share tales of recovery, hope
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 4, 2011 13:09:32 EDT
Apparently, wounded warriors who find a way to overcome grievous injuries tend to share a common characteristic: a wicked sense of gallows humor.

“My friends all looked at me like they’d seen a ghost,” said retired Sgt. Army Bryan Anderson, recalling the minutes after he was hit by a roadside bomb in October 2005, shredding his legs and slicing off his left hand. “I felt I needed to say something, so I reached up and grabbed one’s arm and said, ‘Holy f---, do you think I’ll ever get lucky again?’ It put ’em right on track and they went to work and saved my life.”

“I was in this really dark place, and well, for me, it’s truly dark,” quipped Steve Maguire, blinded in Vietnam by a mine while on patrol with his Army Ranger platoon.

“The sniper was obviously very capable, because he almost shot the reporter in front of me and the Marine behind me. My dad says that even in Iraq, they know who the lawyers are,” joked retired Marine Maj. Justin Constantine, a former member of the judge advocate general corps who was shot in the head by a sniper on Oct. 18, 2006.

Anderson, Maguire and Constantine were among nine veterans who shared miraculous stories of survival, recovery and adaptation following horrific injuries for a television special, the Wounded Warrior Experience, to air on Veterans Day on the Pentagon Channel. The panel discussion was held Thursday, as part of the American Veterans Center’s 14th annual convention in Washington, D.C.,
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