Amputee Marine Veteran Taking on Everest

Marine vet to conquer Everest despite leg amputation 
Marine Corps Times
By Derrick Perkins, Staff writer
February 21, 2015

Charlie Linville, a wounded Marine veteran, has been training in preparation for climbing Mount Everest in the spring. (Photo: Courtesy of The Heroes Project)

Marine veteran Staff Sgt. Charlie Linville isn't letting the partial amputation of his right leg stop him from reaching the summit of Mount Everest this spring — and when he gets there, he will plant a flag bearing the names of those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan and bow his head.

After all, that's the closest he will be to heaven so "I'll just say a prayer and thank them for making ultimate sacrifice," said Linville, 29, of Boise, Idaho.

After serving in Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines — a tour that saw him pass through Fallujah in 2007 — Linville swapped his military occupational specialty of assaultman for explosive ordinance technician.

Two months following the birth of his second daughter in 2010, Linville headed back overseas, this time for Afghanistan as a member of the 3rd Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company. Eventually, he was reunited with 3/5 attaching to the unit in Sangin.

It's there in 2011 that Linville suffered the injuries, including mild traumatic brain injury and lower spine trauma, which would later lead to the amputation of the lower portion of his right leg.

It was during his recovery that Linville found out about The Heroes Project, a foundation dedicated to training and then sending wounded warriors up the world's highest peaks. They initially slated Linville for Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia.

Linville wanted more of a challenge, though, and Everest remained unconquered by the group.
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