Commentary
Corporal (Ret’d) Chris Deering is a combat-wounded veteran of Canada’s war in Afghanistan. During his tour in 2008, while traversing one of the more hostile areas in the south of the country, the Taliban targeted his Light Armoured Vehicle for an IED attack. When the bomb went off, the force of the explosion was so great that it threw his 18-ton vehicle a full 75-80 feet in the air and left a crater the full width of the two-lane road that was just as deep.
Chris’s three crewmates died instantly at the scene, making him the sole survivor of the attack. The other members of his unit found him with his face smashed in by his equipment, his foot fully rotated to the rear, bleeding from his eyes, ears, everywhere. He was medevac’d to Bagram Air Base, and eventually flown to Germany where he was put in a medically induced coma for over a week. Among his injuries were two collapsed lungs, a traumatic brain injury, and multiple fractures in his face, foot, ankle, as well as 30 percent of his vertebrae….