Afghanistan veteran: Soldiers need your support

Afghanistan veteran Tyler Jeffries’ homecoming in December was memorable. He arrived in Concord to a celebration in which Mayor Scott Padgett proclaimed Tyler Jeffries Day.

Jeffries, 24, a U.S. Army E-4 Specialist, lost both legs in October 2012 when he stepped on an explosive device.

Jeffries recently said he is honored to have the proclamation but hopes the public will remain focused on those still fighting overseas.

A Florida native, Jeffries joined the Army as an infantryman a few years after high school, and later was deployed to Afghanistan. In spite of his crippling injuries, Jeffries says, he does not regret his decision to serve his country.

“No one told us what we had to do,” Jeffries said of himself and other servicemen and women. “We signed up for it.”

The explosion that injured Jeffries occurred while he was on patrol not far from base, clearing the area with a device known as a minehound, used to detect metals in explosive devices.

The minehound sometimes misses explosive devices. The insurgent forces in Afghanistan are “getting smart now,” Jeffries said. “They’ll make (improvised explosive devices) with no metal in them, so you can’t even detect them at all. If you find one, that’s great … but sometimes you can’t find it and you end up stepping on it.

“And that’s how you find it, when you get blown up.”

The IED that Jeffries stepped on was monitored and triggered manually when he got close.

Jeffries says he has moved forward with his life with a sense of relief that he was able to prevent the device from harming his comrades.

“I just saw my guys a couple of days ago, and really now my mind isn’t asking ‘why’ as much anymore,” he said. “I’m glad I could take the spot for someone else and possibly save someone else’s life.”

Jeffries is already standing and walking on his prosthetic legs but still has a long recovery process ahead at Walter Reed’s rehabilitation center; however, he is ambitious when he talks about his future.

“I’ve been walking for a month and a half now that I have my new legs,” Jeffries said. “Eventually I’ll get to point where I’m running again.

“One of my things now is that I want to start running again so I can go back out to Washington state and see my guys and do PT with them, and run with them. That’s my biggest goal now.”

Though Jeffries has been receiving much praise for his service, he wants people to remember those still serving in Afghanistan.

“There’s still people over there,” he said. “People call me a hero, but I don’t think of it like that. I did my job, and there are still soldiers doing their job right now. They need the support that I’ve been getting.”