Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry is a Medal of Honor recipient who was deployed overseas eight times throughout the 2000s.
He served two tours in Iraq and six tours in Afghanistan over the course of his military career.
He lost his right arm while providing supervision to a group of Rangers that were battling 40 Taliban militants in a battle in 2008.
He sacrificed himself attempting to throw a Taliban grenade back at the terrorists that were attempting to kill him and two other soldiers. He saved the lives of those two soldiers but lost his right hand and had his body peppered with shrapnel in the process. Petry reflected on the incident stating:
“Get it out of here, get it away from the guys and myself. And I reached over, leaned over to the right, grabbed it with my hand, and I threw it as hard as I could, what I thought was at the time. And as soon as I opened my hand to let it go, it just exploded instantly. And I came back, and the hand was completely severed off.”
You can watch a whole profile on Petry’s life here:
Petry bravely returned to the military in 2013 and traveled with Operation Proper Exit to meet with service members all over Afghanistan. See his return to the battlefield below.
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