Staff Sgt. Curtis Fowler joined the Marines after graduating from Lewisville High School.
"I just wanted to see if I could do it," he recalled. "I really wanted the challenge of the Marines."
His service to our country changed his life in more ways than one. "You get to see the world," he said.
In the winter of 2007, Fowler's life took a drastic turn.
"I was operations chief for Iraqi police in Al Anbar," he said.
Fowler was in a convoy. "I thought nothing was wrong."
Then suddenly, an explosion.
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"I knew instantly it was Al Qaeda," he remembers. "I had traumatic brain injury and I had two torn discs in my back."
His wife Jina got the phone call a few days later.
"It was early in the morning," she recalled. "It was about 2 a.m., I was told at that point that he was being med evac'd out of Iraq. I had so many questions. 'What's wrong? What's going on?'"
That was 11 years ago. "I had to re-learn how to do a lot of stuff," Fowler added.
Still today his injuries still inger. "Now I walk with a cane because my leg is partially paralyzed after surgery," he said.
He may not get around as well as he used, but this Marine wouldn't change a thing.
"I'd go back. Even if you told me this would be the end result. I'd do it all again," he said.
