Army Sgt. Ryan Long didn’t mince words speaking with Boston Marathon bombing victim J.P. Norden when the two met at Walter Reed Bethesda on June 12.
Long was injured last year while on patrol in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was traveling in encountered a roadside bomb. He lost his right leg. The sergeant told Norden, who lost his right leg when the second bomb went off April 15 at the Boston Marathon, the road to recovery has it challenges, but there are also rewards along the way.
Long was injured last year while on patrol in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was traveling in encountered a roadside bomb. He lost his right leg. The sergeant told Norden, who lost his right leg when the second bomb went off April 15 at the Boston Marathon, the road to recovery has it challenges, but there are also rewards along the way.
Long described how his 3-year-old daughter said to him before he got his prosthetic, “You got one foot,” and then just recently after he received his artificial limb, she said, “You have two feet. It’s the little things [that are rewarding],” said the sergeant.
“It gets better,” was also Long’s message to Norden and other victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. He added those victims’ recoveries will depend a lot on their attitudes and how they approach their rehabilitations. “Right now, it may seem [difficult],” the Soldier said. “I know I had days when I was down. I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”