Soldier from Zephyrhills wounded by IED in Afghanistan

Bomb blast injures Zephyrhills High grad
By EDDIE DANIELS
The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 11, 2012

Former Zephyrhills High student Tyler Jeffries, right front, was injured when an IED he stepped on with his left foot exploded Oct. 6 in Afghanistan.

WESLEY CHAPEL
Dotty Campbell was driving to work Saturday morning when she answered her cell phone.

It was her father. He had news about her nephew Tyler Jeffries.

"I had to pull over because I was devastated," she said Wednesday.

Jeffries, a 2007 Zephyrhills High School graduate and an Army infantry member serving in Afghanistan, was injured Saturday when he stepped on an improvised explosive device, or IED.

The explosion took off a portion of the 23-year-old's left leg above the knee as well as a part of his right leg below the knee, Campbell said. Wednesday morning, surgeons at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., removed the remainder of his left leg at the hip.

Jeffries, who was deployed in April for his first tour of duty, will spend the next few days in the hospital's intensive care unit. read more here