SPC Andrew Wilson

Brentwood, TN

Army SPC Andrew Wilson was on his first deployment when he suffered the amputations of his right leg below the knee, and his left leg above the knee, after stepping on an IED while on a foot patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan on October 19, 2011. While patrolling in an area that had been the location of an IED explosion 3 days earlier, SPC Wilson was part of the team clearing the “Red Zone”. Stepping on a pressure plate, only 2 feet from the bomb itself, Andrew and his best friend were both blown into the air by the blast. With his platoon frantically working to save his life, and as his low blood pressure prevented him from receiving any morphine to numb the pain, Andrew’s platoon talked and sang to him while carrying him for 700 meters (nearly half a mile) to the medevac helicopter. Transported to local hospitals, SPC Wilson was stabilized in-country and airlifted to Landstuhl, Germany before arriving at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland where he continues his treatments and therapies at this time.