Marine Corp Veteran Sean Smith with service dog Hawk stand in front of an American flag display. Marine Corps Veteran Sean Smith didn’t leave his house for four years. He had lost purpose and motivation.
His journey to that point had been a long one. It all started on his last tour in Afghanistan.
The incident
After four years in the military, Smith was deployed to Helmand Province from 2010 – 2011 for his third overseas tour of duty.
Smith’s team was racing toward reports of a firefight in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous areas. After the team turned down an alley, a choke point, they spotted suspicious activity and the unit pursued on foot.
No one noticed the nearby improvised explosive device (IED). In fact, one of the Soldier stepped right over it.
Then, Smith felt searing heat from an explosion while standing in the open door of his truck on the radio. A wall came down, slicing the vehicle in half. Smith lost consciousness.
When he came to, Smith grabbed the radio and began calling for a medical evacuation.
“It was chaos,” said Smith, seriously. “I got on the radio and started calling for (medical attention) because I didn’t know if my guys were dead or not. Turns out we were all just really banged up from the explosion.”Smith recovered on light duty for eight days. He said he was diagnosed with a concussion which was not his first while on deployment.“That was kind of the daily routine, getting blown up. You knew it was going to happen you just didn’t know when,” he said, matter-of-factly.But this time was different.“That one in particular, I didn’t feel right after. The ears were ringing really bad, dizziness, nausea, throwing up, threw up blood. I felt really sick,” he said. “After that I never felt the same with my head and my neck.” Aftermath Smith left the military after that tour and began working but was continuously let go due to being a “liability for safety reasons.” He said he would lose his balance, miss work due to severe cluster headaches and multiple medical visits. He […]
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