By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
From the moment his broken body was pulled from an armored vehicle in Iraq — after an enemy grenade, dropped through a hatch, detonated inches away —Army Ranger Joseph Kapacziewki vowed to be back in the fight.
"Is this going to ruin my chances of being a squad leader?" he asked as he was carried into a medical ward.
The soldier's lower right leg was shattered. Nerve damage left his right arm useless. And from hip to upper thigh, the flesh was shredded by the blast.
It was 2005, and doctors feared Kapacziewski (pronounced Capa-CHESS-ski) would never walk, much less be able to remain in the elite, physically demanding Army Rangers…
Fast-forward five years to the morning of April 19, 2010, to a village in eastern Afghanistan.
With help from his false leg, Sgt. 1st Class Kapacziewski, 28, races down an Afghan road through enemy fire to reach a fellow Ranger who had been shot in the stomach. Along with another soldier, they drag the wounded man 75 yards to safety and administer first aid as insurgents with heavy machine guns try to kill them.
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