(United Services Automobile Association)
November 13, 2012
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] Capt. Scotty Smiley — the Army’s first blind active-duty officer — lives the true meaning of perseverance.
Surviving an explosion that almost killed him was just the start of Smiley’s ordeal. Recovering at Walter Reed National Medical Center, he struggled with the reality of losing one eye entirely and his sight in the other. He asked, “Am I truly blind? Will I always be blind?”
The day he received the Purple Heart in his hospital bed was difficult. “Receiving a Purple Heart was recognition that my life was changed. Yes, you were wounded. Yes, you are blind.”
The struggle strengthened not only his personal faith, but also his desire to serve others and his country. “One of the Army’s values is selfless service. I don’t think anyone would ever say Scott Smiley has not served his country,” he says. But he wasn’t ready to stop.
Once an Army medical review board declared Smiley mentally and physically fit to serve, he was ready to move forward. Despite his blindness, he earned a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he went on to teach military leadership at West Point and to command the Warrior Transition Unit at West Point’s Keller Army Medical Center. He also earned the Army’s prestigious MacArthur Leadership Award, which recognizes junior officers who demonstrate the ideals espoused by Gen. Douglas MacArthur: duty, honor, country.
Entire article:
Officer Doesn’t Let Blindness Stop Him
http://tinyurl.com/ide1213122
Planet of the Blind 