Wounded Marine cared more about others than himself

Marine Shares Struggle with Combat Injuries
Marine Corps News
by Lance Cpl. Suzanna Knotts
Nov 01, 2013

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- Some may dread recalling the day of their brush with death, but Sgt. Rafael Cervantes Jr. embraces it as his second birthday.

After conducting a house search in Bakwa District, Farah province, Afghanistan, then Cpl. Rafael Cervantes Jr., a motor transport mechanic with Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, took the wheel of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle and hit an improvised explosive device.

On April 4, 2011, Cervantes was reborn.

Cervantes is currently with Wounded Warrior Battalion West-Detachment Hawaii recovering from injuries sustained from the IED blast.

On the day of the incident, his officer in charge, Capt. Daniel Donnerstag, told Cervantes they received intelligence of possible Taliban making IEDs in a nearby compound.

“Everything felt like it was happening slowly,” Cervantes said. “I passed out and when I woke up, everyone else was still out. It was dark and smoky. My first reaction was to make sure I had everything below my waist. I started touching my legs and I couldn’t feel anything at first.”

He recalled pulling on his leg because it was stuck, and then felt his ankle dangling from his leg.

The explosion hit to the right of the vehicle, so he felt most of his pain on the right side of his body.

“I started wiggling my leg and it felt like everything was wiggling on its own,” Cervantes said.

“I was able to get out and that’s when the pain got worse. But I didn’t care about myself. I just wanted to get everyone out of the truck.”

After waking up another Marine in the vehicle, Cervantes pulled him out and fell to the ground. At that point, he couldn’t move. The intense pain he felt spread to his back.

However, his major concern was still the safety of his fellow Marines, so he scanned the area for threats as he lay on the ground.

“I knew I needed my weapon to provide cover, but I needed to get back inside the truck,” Cervantes said. “Kyle (the Marine he pulled out) went to get the others, so I crawled back to get my weapon.”

Cervantes grabbed his weapon by the optic, and it fell apart.

“I thought, ‘what the hell?’ My weapon was broken in pieces. But I noticed the gunner’s M16 on the ground, so I grabbed it and laid down to provide cover,” Cervantes said.

The other Marines sustained serious injuries as well, but everyone inside the vehicle survived the explosion. The corpsman who was on patrol with them applied a splint to Cervantes’ leg. They waited for two and a half hours for help to arrive.
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