SPC Thongpane (TD) Thongdeng

Tampa, FL

Army Specialist Thongpane (TD) Thongdeng was on his first deployment when an IED blast caused his right leg to be amputated below the knee and left him paralyzed while returning from a mission in Afghanistan on December 2, 2010. The driver of the third vehicle in a convoy, SPC Thongdeng was driving along a dirt road when his truck rolled over an IED after passing two broken down semi-tractor trailer trucks. Knocked unconscious by the blast, SPC Thongdeng awoke to find he was unable to move; the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle upside down with blood and gasoline filling his helmet. Thinking of his wife and children, SPC Thongdeng waited for troops from the other convoy vehicles to pull him and the MRAP’s occupants to safety. Miraculously, all survived the blast. Having difficulty breathing, TD was carried to the landing zone to wait for the MEDEVAC helicopter. Feeling the wind from the propellers on his face he knew he was being brought to safety and blacked out as soon as he was aboard the helicopter. Waking seventeen days later, SPC Thongdeng had no way of knowing he had been treated at FOB Conley and multiple hospitals in-country before arriving at Landstuhl, Germany finally; arriving at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Later transferred to James A. Haley Hospital in Tampa, he continues receiving treatments there at this time.