A Devastating Injury Results in Discharge

Heroes Remember

A Devastating Injury Results in Discharge

Transcript

March 19, 2001 at 9 o’clock in the morning, Ethiopian time we were servicing the vehicles and there was a major explosion in one of the vehicles. My face took the brunt of the blast where a 25 mm round and everything else had blew off in it, inside the turret and it ended my career instantly. I was deaf and blind for a better part of three or four days. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know everything that I have been through, you know, when the explosion happened I remember, I remember getting out of the turret and seeing the blood dripping inside my eyes and then everything went red and everything went white. I woke up in the hospital about a week later and it was and at that time I probably had about twenty surgeries to reconstruct my face. And then the turmoil over PTSD started. And it was and still is not easy at all.

Description

Thier shares his experiences of becoming seriously injured when servicing a vehicle causing a lifetime of injury and suffering.

Michael Thier

Mr. Michael Their was born in Vancouver, B.C. August 30, 1970. Looking at options for a career choice, at age 24 Mike considering himself a late bloomer chose to join the military. Only four days after joining up and being trained an as infantry soldier, Mike was given an opportunity to deploy to Bosnia with IFOR ’96, SFOR ’99 and then to Ethiopia as part of UNMEE in 2001. After a horrific accident turret explosion to the armoured vehicle, Mike received serious facial wounds and after more than twenty surgeries he was given no choice but to be medically released from the military. Suffering with PTSD, Mike continues to struggle yet carries on with a sense of purpose in life and holds great pride in wearing the maple leaf. Mike has been named part of Team Canada for Invictus Games 2018 taking part in the sport of weight lifting and wheelchair basketball. Mike resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick with and family.

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