thedrifter
12-24-06, 07:16 AM
Published: December 23, 2006 09:18 am
A hero at heart
Former Navarro County man proves himself in Iraq
By Janet Jacobs
Aaron Maggard, 26, is an unlikely hero.
Adopted by his Corsicana grandparents, Pat and James Coker, who raised him from six months, he had a shaky relationship with his birth mother. Growing up in Blooming Grove, he attended Dawson schools, even playing in the high school band before dropping out early to get his GED. An early job at Olé Foods paid his bills for a while, then he finally left Corsicana. A few years later, still unsure of what to make of his life, he joined the Navy. With that move, he was determined to find a new direction as a corpsman — an emergency medical technician.
But among the Marines, he has proven his mettle, earning tributes, and a nifty new scar on one side of his face.
“I took shrapnel in the right jaw,” he said in a telephone interview from Garland Wednesday.
“I think I’m prettier now,” he joked.
What has proven to be a defining moment in his life took place Sept. 9, while Maggard was on foot patrol near Anah in West Anbar Province and his squad was hit with an improvised explosive device.
Injured in the attack were Maggard, two Marines and an Iraqi soldier. Maggard single-mindedly applied tourniquets and pain relief to the others, despite his own serious wounds, and the incoming gunfire they were taking, according to the accounts of the Marines who witnessed it.
Maggard admits he wasn’t thinking of himself when it happened, he was just focused on his job.
“It was ‘Who’s injured? What have I got to do?’” Maggard said. “Then I heard gunshots, and I thought, ‘Great, this is going to be fun.’”
His jaw didn’t start hurting until he was already working on the others, he said.
“It just felt like somebody had hit me really, really hard with a baseball bat,” he said. “I went to pick up my eye protection off the ground, and blood hit the ground, and I was like ‘I think this is more than just getting hit in the face.’”
Even while they were being taken out in a medical Humvee, Maggard continued to treat the others, the Marines reported.
Maggard was eventually evacuated to Germany, where he started recovery and his physical therapy, but he’ll have to live with the shrapnel. It’s too close to the carotid artery that supplies blood to the brain to risk surgery, doctors told him.
And, yes, it does set off metal detectors in airports. He carries a medical note in his wallet for just such an occasion.
“It actually went off on me in Germany,” he said, laughing.
Pat Coker said she’s proud of him, but she admits “moms are a little prejudiced.”
“You never know what your kids are made of until they’re tested,” Coker said.
This week, Maggard is home with his wife, Katrina, at their apartment in Garland. Technically, they aren’t newlyweds, but they’ve spent so much time apart since they were married in July 2005 that the honeymoon shine is still all around them. Maggard’s nickname for his wife is “Precious” and when asked if his life had turned around since joining the Navy in 2004, he pointed to his marriage as his most significant accomplishment.
“Now, I’m able to have a lovely, beautiful wife, and I’m fixing to move her to North Carolina with me,” he said.
Maggard says he’s glad to be back, able to visit his family and friends, happy to be able to go to grocery stores and drive, and take care of the move.
“I wish I was still with my guys, but I’m glad to be home, too,” he said. “When the unit comes back and gets deployed again I’ll go out with them.”
In the meantime, he’ll be in North Carolina, and he has decided to make a career of the military and get the higher education he missed out on before.
“I’m going to try (to make it a career),” he said. “I have to do one more deployment, then after that I’m going to learn how to be a surgical technician.”
For the Cokers, however, it’s enough that he’s safe and sound and back in Texas, even if only temporarily. Pat Coker admits that she wanted to “buckle” when she first got news Maggard was injured in Iraq.
“I hurt for every mama that’s got a kid over there,” she said, adding:
“We’re proud of him, but we’re prouder that he’s alive.”
—————
Janet Jacobs may be contacted via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com
Ellie
A hero at heart
Former Navarro County man proves himself in Iraq
By Janet Jacobs
Aaron Maggard, 26, is an unlikely hero.
Adopted by his Corsicana grandparents, Pat and James Coker, who raised him from six months, he had a shaky relationship with his birth mother. Growing up in Blooming Grove, he attended Dawson schools, even playing in the high school band before dropping out early to get his GED. An early job at Olé Foods paid his bills for a while, then he finally left Corsicana. A few years later, still unsure of what to make of his life, he joined the Navy. With that move, he was determined to find a new direction as a corpsman — an emergency medical technician.
But among the Marines, he has proven his mettle, earning tributes, and a nifty new scar on one side of his face.
“I took shrapnel in the right jaw,” he said in a telephone interview from Garland Wednesday.
“I think I’m prettier now,” he joked.
What has proven to be a defining moment in his life took place Sept. 9, while Maggard was on foot patrol near Anah in West Anbar Province and his squad was hit with an improvised explosive device.
Injured in the attack were Maggard, two Marines and an Iraqi soldier. Maggard single-mindedly applied tourniquets and pain relief to the others, despite his own serious wounds, and the incoming gunfire they were taking, according to the accounts of the Marines who witnessed it.
Maggard admits he wasn’t thinking of himself when it happened, he was just focused on his job.
“It was ‘Who’s injured? What have I got to do?’” Maggard said. “Then I heard gunshots, and I thought, ‘Great, this is going to be fun.’”
His jaw didn’t start hurting until he was already working on the others, he said.
“It just felt like somebody had hit me really, really hard with a baseball bat,” he said. “I went to pick up my eye protection off the ground, and blood hit the ground, and I was like ‘I think this is more than just getting hit in the face.’”
Even while they were being taken out in a medical Humvee, Maggard continued to treat the others, the Marines reported.
Maggard was eventually evacuated to Germany, where he started recovery and his physical therapy, but he’ll have to live with the shrapnel. It’s too close to the carotid artery that supplies blood to the brain to risk surgery, doctors told him.
And, yes, it does set off metal detectors in airports. He carries a medical note in his wallet for just such an occasion.
“It actually went off on me in Germany,” he said, laughing.
Pat Coker said she’s proud of him, but she admits “moms are a little prejudiced.”
“You never know what your kids are made of until they’re tested,” Coker said.
This week, Maggard is home with his wife, Katrina, at their apartment in Garland. Technically, they aren’t newlyweds, but they’ve spent so much time apart since they were married in July 2005 that the honeymoon shine is still all around them. Maggard’s nickname for his wife is “Precious” and when asked if his life had turned around since joining the Navy in 2004, he pointed to his marriage as his most significant accomplishment.
“Now, I’m able to have a lovely, beautiful wife, and I’m fixing to move her to North Carolina with me,” he said.
Maggard says he’s glad to be back, able to visit his family and friends, happy to be able to go to grocery stores and drive, and take care of the move.
“I wish I was still with my guys, but I’m glad to be home, too,” he said. “When the unit comes back and gets deployed again I’ll go out with them.”
In the meantime, he’ll be in North Carolina, and he has decided to make a career of the military and get the higher education he missed out on before.
“I’m going to try (to make it a career),” he said. “I have to do one more deployment, then after that I’m going to learn how to be a surgical technician.”
For the Cokers, however, it’s enough that he’s safe and sound and back in Texas, even if only temporarily. Pat Coker admits that she wanted to “buckle” when she first got news Maggard was injured in Iraq.
“I hurt for every mama that’s got a kid over there,” she said, adding:
“We’re proud of him, but we’re prouder that he’s alive.”
—————
Janet Jacobs may be contacted via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com
Ellie