900 American service members have been almost burned to death since 2001 and Joey Paulk was one of them. He has been severely burned in Afghanistan and has been brought to a hospital in Texas three weeks after the incident. When he was in the hospital, his mother and his girlfriend were there and that consoled him but then he looked at his fingers and realized that they were missing. He then looked in a mirror and saw that everything was out of order; with the top part of his right ear missing and with his bottom lip drooping. After seeing this, instead of panicking, he went on to say, "This is who I am now". By 2009, he left the Army returning to California where he lived. On his way home, it seemed like he forgot something, his self-confidence. He later visited a program at U.C.L.A Medical Center called Operation Mend. This was a program that provided cosmetic surgery to veterans needing it with no charge. After getting some surgery, Joey's self-confidence jumped right back up and he is going out again to bars and beaches and even baseball games. He also took part in Veterans Daylast year , at age 26, riding on the lead car of the New York City parade.
I think that this is really inspirational because it starts off as a man fighting for his country to a man hiding in his house, wearing sweatshirts, baseball caps and dark glasses to hide the burns and the droopy eyes from the burning. After seeing the burns in the hospital, the first thing he said was,"This is who I am now" and I think that it took a lot of courage to just say that in a calm voice. After getting his surgery he told his story and inspired many people. This shows what kind of person he is. He is a strong and happy man even after what happened. He did lose some self-confidence after the burning but he came back ten times stronger.
Link to article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/us/for-soldier-disfigured-in-afghanistan-a-way-to-return-to-the-world.html
