July 30, 2021

Wounded warriors share message of resiliency in Florida

I did not know I got shot,” said the sergeant. “I thought a flare hit my legs.” He was on his second deployment in Afghanistan in July 2011 serving on a combat search and rescue team. His mission was to recover wounded service members. “Going out and getting shot at” was routine, he said, as his unit averaged eight missions a day. On the day a bullet tore through his legs inside an HH 60 Pave Hawk helicopter, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. August O’Niell, 414th Combat Training Squadron Detachment 1 flight chief in charge of ground operations at Davis-Monthan, Air Force Base, Arizona, said his world changed.