Double amputee OEF OIF veteran driven to inspire!

Double amputee veteran chases truck driving dream

WKRN
By: Adam Snider
Posted: Feb 14, 2019 12:07

CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (WKRN) - A dream decades in the making was nearly taken away from a local veteran.

"There's dark days out there. Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them." Erin Schaefer

Outside of Christiana though, for the last several weeks, he's worked to achieve this goal.

"My dad was a trucker so that's all I've known," said Erin Schaefer, an Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "I just love the open road, being out there with the truck. Just myself and my thoughts."

Those thoughts sometimes take him back to the Army and his final term in Afghanistan.

It was on this trip in 2010, that he was in the wrong truck at the wrong time.

"Was out on a convoy taking supplies from one base to the next. Came to a halt because the other truck in the rear of our convoy had become disabled," he explained. "Started moving again, and the IED blast went off."

Erin is now an amputee, losing both his legs below the knee.

"There's dark days out there," he said. "Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them."

He's found new life, thanks in part to an old passion.

Erin is now seeking his CDL, at the Truck Driver Institute (TDI) outside Christiana.
read more here