Injured Soldier Returns Home To Cheering Family And Friends
Posted: 12/19/2005 3:38:00 PM
Updated: 12/19/2005 9:37:17 PM
Staff Sergeant Joseph Beimfohr was injured in July about 35 miles Northwest
of Baghdad. He and two other soldiers tried to defuse a booby trap.
Beimfohr is happy to be back in Tennessee after making a personal sacrifice
in Iraq. The soldier is from Winchester, in Franklin County, but arrived to
cheers and smiles Monday at Nashville International Airport.
When Beimfohr and the other two soldiers were trying to defuse the bobby
trap, the device exploded. One soldier was killed, the other suffered minor
injuries, and Beimfohr lost his right leg and part of his left because of
the shrapnel.
He's home from Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the
holidays with his family. His cousins, who have adopted him as one of their
own, greeted him at the gate.
Beimfohr was then whisked away to see the rest of his family and friends.
His cousin, Julie Humphrey, believes his survival is a miracle.
"God has been a huge element in this story. Joe really shouldn't be alive
today. His injuries were so severe that he shouldn't have survived. He
survived and he did because his buddies were trained very well on triage.
They were able to get him stable and get him to a hospital very quickly. So
he survived and he survived for a reason," said Humphrey.
Beimfohr is a Calvary scout, and before his deployment to Iraq, he was
stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas. After visiting with his family, he'll
head back to Walter Reed for more physical therapy.
In spite of the trauma, Beimfohr says he remembers everything that happened.