John Henry
Jed Morgan, standing in front of an all-terrain vehicle donated to him by the Freedom Mobility Foundation, is happy and at peace after the catastrophic injury he suffered in Afghanistan.
The Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl calls itself the “Bowl for the Brave," and we all know that’s not just some trite slogan of an MBA marketeer.
The sacrifice of the men and women in service to country is no small gesture.
“I wanted to do something bigger than myself and serve my country,” says Jed Morgan, a former U.S. Marine, if there is any such thing as a former U.S. Marine.
Morgan, walking around Veterans Village with the aid of prosthetics acting as his legs, is the embodiment of the bowl game’s motto. Morgan’s is a tale of bravery before and after a catastrophic injury in which both legs were blasted off his bottom half, a result of his inadvertently triggering an improvised explosive device during a combat tour in Afghanistan in 2012.
“I thought I was in a dream for a moment,” Morgan says recalling the moment of the incident. “But I didn’t remember falling asleep, so I was trying to figure out what was going on. When [his fellow soldiers] ran over to put tourniquets on that’s when I realized what was going on.”
In addition to losing his legs, his right hand and arm were mangled badly.
Morgan, today a resident of Medford, Oregon, and Andrew Bottrell, a Navy veteran, were presented with Can-Am all-terrain vehicles by the Texas-based Freedom Mobility Foundation during the second quarter of Army’s 24-22 victory over Missouri on Wednesday night at TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Morgan’s First Battalion, Seventh Marines were deployed to Sangin Province. For three months, the regiment made four-to-seven-hour foot patrols a day. One day, his unit made a stop for rest on top of a hill. Morgan was a squad automatic weapon gunner.
As the unit settled into a defensive position on the hill, Morgan brushed the pressure plate of an IED. By that time of the conflict, everybody knew what the sudden blinding light was. An EID had combusted. Everybody but Morgan knew, that is. He was momentarily in shock, as he was knocked on his back. Morgan was evacuated by helicopter and eventually sent to Landstuhl, Germany, where his wife, Anna, and his parents were waiting for him.
Morgan needed two years of rehabilitation for his physical injuries and to learn to walk with prosthetics.
“Mentally, it took a while,” he says.
Studies show that emotional well-being can be catastrophically impacted by amputation. Many suffer from anxiety and depression, some of which is caused when body image, one’s psychological picture of oneself, is disrupted.
“I was dealing with anger and frustration,” Morgan says. “And I walked away from God for a while.”
One day, he looked at himself in the mirror.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to be this person for my wife and family,’” he says. “I turned it back toward Christ, thanking him for everything He has done for me and keeping me alive for some purpose.
“He has a reason for what happened to me.”
He made a very courageous choice.
He works with the White heart Foundation, which employs “eco-adventure therapy,” taking veterans out Wyoming and Colorado for whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and things like that. The therapy has been shown to be an effective antidote against PTSD.
He also now leads Bible studies at his church.
Despite missing both legs and without the full use of his right arm, Morgan is whole again. And he wouldn’t change anything, including the decision to enter the Marine Corps a year after high school graduation.
“The only way we can grow is through adversity and trial,” he says. “I was at a point in my life where I as kind of stagnant with my walk with Christ. It grew me in ways I never could have otherwise. It brought me closer to Christ and made me a better person. It’s given me opportunities to help other people and given me a voice I wouldn’t otherwise have.”
