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Justin ShellhammerJustin Shellhammer
U.S. ARMY STAFF SERGEANT
Justin enlisted at age 21 in the US Army and received training in the military police program. In July of 2003, Justin came back to the United States to Ft. Richardson, Alaska, where he was in charge of 12 soldiers for field and law enforcement training. In March, he and his company (the 164th military police company) were sent to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. It was there that he had a life-altering experience.
On April 5, 2005, he went out on a patrol with his soldiers to find out who was attacking the base. During the investigation, they were walking down a dirt sidewalk. Justin saw a mortar round on the right hand side of the dirt sidewalk and realized that the soldiers behind him were walking toward it. He put out his arm to stop them and when he did, one of the soldiers bumped his arm and another one bumped his shoulder, so he lost his balance. When he attempted to regain his balance, he stepped on an active land mine with his left foot. The impact shot him forward and he landed on his chest on another land mine. Fortunately this one did not detonate. His soldiers reacted immediately and applied a tourniquet. Justin put his arm around one soldier and actually hopped to back to his vehicle where he called in the incident himself! Later he was told that the tourniquet was applied so well, that he only lost a nosebleed amount of blood.
From a hospital in Afghanistan, he flew to Germany and then to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C on April 11, 2005. He was an inpatient from April 11 to the 20th. His left leg was amputated six inches below the knee. Because of his determined spirit, he had the shortest recovery on record for an amputee at Walter Reed Hospital. A month after he lost his leg, he received his first prosthetic. A month and a week after he lost his leg, he ran 2 miles for the first time in 17 minutes! In September of 2005, he and his family went to New York where he participated in “The Tunnel to the Towers Run.” This race benefited the families of firefighters and policemen killed in 9-11. He completed this 4 ½K run in 42 minutes. Out of 10 amputees in the race he came in 3rd.
Through all this, Justin keeps his sense of humor and a determined spirit. “Everyone has something they don’t like about their bodies (and you think it would be my leg), but it’s my ears!” He has a love for his country and the military and says, “No matter what you think about the war in Iraq, I want people to understand and appreciate the brotherhood between soldiers and the dedication that they have to each other and to their country. The soldiers that saved me gave my daughter her daddy back.” He also says, “You don’t need two legs to be a real person… all you need is a heart.”
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Prosthetics & Orthotics of Central Florida | (800) 745-2556 | (407) 245-7770 |
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