Veteran Dances With HIs Bride After Motorcycle Accident

Veterans Day 2014: Touching Photo, Video Show Paraplegic Veteran Dancing With Wife at Wedding
ABC News
By KATHERINE EMOFF and SUSANNA KIM
via GOOD MORNING AMERICA
Business Digital Reporter
Nov 11, 2014

Sgt. Joey Johnson, 27, a veteran who served for 10 months in Afghanistan, prepared the ultimate surprise for his new wife on their wedding day: a first dance without the aid of his wheelchair.

Johnson, from Fishers, Indiana, suffered a spinal injury in a motorcycle accident on Aug. 12, 2012, just four months after he met his future wife, Michelle Johnson, at a country music concert.

"We realized that we had the same birthday, June 29, and same last name Johnson," Michelle Johnson told ABC News. "Joey had just come back from a tour in Afghanistan a few weeks before."

Johnson had served in Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khowst, Afghanistan.

"We knew we were meant to be," she said. "Joey’s parents Ruth and Michael Johnson also have the same birthday, January 14."

Johnson suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after Afghanistan and needed a rush, his wife said, explaining why he turned to riding a motorcycle. Now, he can't feel anything from the chest down and is a paraplegic.

He proposed in April 2013 and the couple decided to have their wedding on on June 28, 2014 -- the day before their birthday.
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Video: Wounded Warrior Rows Across the Pacific

Former Marine makes historic trek across the Pacific to become the first paraplegic to successfully row from California to Hawaii.
DVIDS
Petty Officer 2nd Class Lori Bent
July 21, 2014

Wounded Soldier's Mom refused to abandon son or hope

We read them as numbers. Families know them by names, lives, dreams, hopes and out of love. We forget them and get on with our own lives as if they don't really matter. Families give up everything because of how much they actually do matter to them. That's part of the problem in this country. We say we support the troops until they become wounded. We say military families deserve all the support we can give them but never really think of what they're asked to do and what do not do in return for it.

If you look at your own life and think that you really haven't paid attention, read this article and know what has been happening while you didn't.

Forever after: A warrior wounded, a family challenged
By MEGAN MCCLOSKEY
Stars and Stripes
Published: November 13, 2012

One bullet.

One choice.

One American military family shattered.

On Oct. 26, 2005, Army Spc. Erik Schei was shot in the head during a patrol in Iraq. The doctors said he would never recover from the catastrophic brain injury. They urged the family to take the 21-year-old off life support.

But his mother refused to abandon hope.

Christine Schei’s choice to take her wounded son home forever altered her family. Her younger son vowed to finish his brother’s mission, only to end up gravely wounded himself. Her 4-year-old daughter lost her childhood. Her husband lost his career, and his peace of mind.

Thousands of American servicemembers have been seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 12 years of war. But the collateral damage from those wounds extends much further, challenging the families of the wounded for a lifetime.
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