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- [00:00]
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- [00:29]
Gabe Martinez
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Gabe Martinez
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Gabe Martinez
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- [01:20]
Gabe Martinez
Now. I remember everything was red. Like all my vision was red. And I remember thinking like something really got rattled loose, you know, up in my head. And what I realized is that it was blood going down from my skull into my eyes. And so the piece of shrapnel had gone through my helmet and into my forehead. So I remember wiping that free and looking down and seeing that my legs were, they were still there. One was hanging off to the side, one was on my chest.
- [01:58]
Ad Host/Voice Actor
That was retired Marine and Purple Heart recipient Gabe Martinez speaking about the life altering event that took place 15 years ago this week. After a series of IEDs exploded on a roadside in Afghanistan, Martinez lost both of his legs. But upon returning home, he's found new life and purpose with the help of Semper Fi and America's Fund and Adaptive Sports. Now he's an advocate for other vets recovering from traumatic injuries.
- [02:24]
John Bickley
In this episode, we speak with Martinez about that life changing Thanksgiving Day in 2010 and the role veterans groups play in helping wounded warriors find a new mission here at home. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a Thanksgiving week edition of Morning Wire.
- [02:42]
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- [05:05]
John Bickley
Joining us now for this Thanksgiving week special is Gabe Martinez, retired Marine and Marine veteran advocate. Gabe, first, thank you for your service and thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [05:14]
Gabe Martinez
I appreciate you so much for having me.
- [05:17]
John Bickley
First, we'd like to hear your story. What led you to enlist in the Marines?
- [05:22]
Gabe Martinez
So when I'm asked this question about what led me to enlist, it, you know, it, I sometimes feel like it's cliche because it's, you know, I was, I was young in seventh grade when 9, 11 happened. But that very much was the kind of the, the spark, as you'd say, to, to kind of get me to where I am today. I was in seventh grade and didn't know much about it, but I just remember seeing the faces on every adult in my family in my classes and really got curious and learned about terrorism, you know, learned about al Qaeda at the time and the Taliban. And really from there, it kind of kind of evolved for me, you know, as I got older, got into high school. And of course in high school, everybody's talking about which college you're going to apply to and whatnot. And I knew I wanted to go to college, but there was still something more. And so I found myself at the recruiter station and I hit up every branch of service and found myself signing the dotted line with the United States Marine Corps in 2006.
- [06:24]
John Bickley
So you were still in high school when you enlisted, and when did your first deployment start?
- [06:28]
Gabe Martinez
My first deployment starts in early January 2008, just two years after I enlisted. So my first deployment was a Marine Expeditionary Unit where we get on the Navy ships and we go out through kind of a security force in the waters. And so I was all over the Middle East.
- [06:45]
John Bickley
So you complete your first deployment and then your second is to Afghanistan. And that's where your personal story really pivoted on Thanksgiving day back in 2010. What happened on that day? What do you remember most vividly about that day?
- [06:59]
Gabe Martinez
Yeah, so Thanksgiving 2010 is obviously a day I'll never forget. I remember everything about it. And I'm blessed to note to still have that because a lot of guys, you know, don't recollect. But yeah, for me, I was on my, my second deployment in the Marines I was in for about three years at that point and we were going to the Helmand province of Afghanistan. And before that deployment, I knew it was going to be, you know, a tougher deployment. That was a real brutal year for some of the Marine Corps units out there. It was the morning after Thanksgiving in Afghanistan, so still Thanksgiving here. We were going to do a longer mission set and so we were at a local base stocking up on, you know, supplies and whatnot. Everything out there slow when you in a vehicle around foot. So we're probably about an hour into the convoy when the first vehicle, which is equipped with ground penetrating radar panels to see what's in the ground, stopped and said something was interfering with the, the computer system. And so he was instructed to reboot, reset the panels and then proceed. So the driver did as instructed. He rebooted the system and started to move forward. Convoy starts going and then boom, an IED goes off, detonates the second vehicle, which is also another husky single man vehicle with a computer system, it gets struck. So when that happens, at the time, my job, I was part of, of a team that we would dismount, we look for secondary IEDs, tertiary look for any enemy in the area, command wire, whatnot, we dismount, we're looking for that. And at this point, I mean, there's debris from the, from the downed vehicle everywhere. And we clear from the vehicle back, you know, they're of no threat essentially. And now I have to clear in front of the vehicle, like to get up and around the vehicle and I'm on the road and like I said, I'm, I'm sitting next to a 26,000 pound chunk of metal and I'm holding a metal detector. So that metal detector was kind of rendered useless at that point. So I did, just as I had many times, I, I got down on the ground and kind of manually would sift through, sift through the earth, loose soil, kind of look for, interrogate, what we call it. And as I'm interrogating, you know, I'm not coming up with anything, but I remember one of my best friends, Sergeant Ibrahim Matai, at the time, he was mentioning to me that he saw some disturbed earth ahead of the vehicle. So as I'm talking with him, I kind of deemed the area in front of me clear. So I stand up and that first step, like I said, my metal detector was rendered useless at that point. Since I'm standing next to a chunk of 26,000 pounds of metal, I stand up after clearing that and I take maybe one or two steps forward. And right after that, boom, the second IED detonates right beneath me. It ended up being a 25 pound improvised explosive device packed in a glass jar. And so the IED goes off, and I remember getting tossed up into the air. And then I landed in this crater that the IED had created. And it was dusty, and it was kind of the fog of war as you. As you see, as you. You hear of. And I remember everything was red. Like, all my vision was red. And I remember thinking, like, something really got rattled loose, you know, up in my. My head. And what I realized is that it was blood going down from my. My skull into my eyes. And so the piece of shrapnel had gone through my, my helmet and into my forehead. So I remember wiping that free and looking down and seeing that my legs were. They were still there. One was hanging off to the side, one was on my chest. And I remember being kind of angered. And so I remember throwing one of my legs. And right. No sooner do I throw it, I realized it wasn't completely unattached, because that's when kind of reality sets in. So I remember being in this hole. My. My medical bag was scattered everywhere. And as I'm trying to pull myself out of the. The ied, the hole, boom, a third one goes off right, right behind me. And that ended up being my best friend, Justin Gertner, coming up. And he had stepped on a third ied, and so he had lost both of his legs. And so I remember getting put on the litter, the stretcher, and as they call the medevac helicopter for now, three of us. And as they had me on the. The litter and they're taking me to the helicopter, the stretcher breaks, and I fall off of the stretcher into the ground. And as they put me back on and they load me on the helicopter, I see kind of them bringing somebody else on. And that's when I learned that it was my buddy Gertner as they loaded him on right after me. From there, they fly us to the nearest medical, Military medical facility with the means of surgery, and they fly us there. They do kind of finish the amputations, clean out the wounds, and then kind of get us stabilized. And it was there that I remember seeing some sailors off in the corner with the satellite phone. And I was able to muster to a doctor, like, I wanted that phone. And so he gives me the phone, and somehow I'm able to coherently give him the number. And he calls my wife. And so There I was calling my wife, telling her what happened, maybe within an hour of what happened, which is obviously not the norm.
- [13:20]
John Bickley
It's incredible.
- [13:22]
Gabe Martinez
And so from there, Justin, he survived. He lost both of his legs and almost his arm. And then the. The driver of the vehicle was. Was more concussed. And so from there, they fly us to kind of from that point on, it's. It's wash the wound, stabilize, get us off as fast as they can so we get to the United States. So from there, went to Bagram, and then Bagram to Germany, Germany to Bethesda, Maryland. And all that happened within probably about 48 hours.
- [13:56]
John Bickley
And that's when I was just a total whirlwind. What. How much could you grasp what had happened? Was it real to you? Is this. Is this. Are you looking and saying my life has changed forever, or can you not understand it?
- [14:09]
Gabe Martinez
At that moment, I knew I had lost my legs. I remember as I was transported from. To point A to B, B to C, it was still a matter of, like, am I gonna live? Am I gonna survive this? And then what does life look like for me? Like, I'd been 22 years old, you know, and my life was changed in an instant. And now I was physically different. And so I didn't know what life looked like for me as an amputee. I. Quite honestly, I was oblivious to the fact of prosthetics. And so in my mind, I thought I was gonna be stuck in a wheelchair, dependent on everybody else for the rest of my life.
- [14:53]
John Bickley
Yeah. And to be clear, where was the injury exactly? And how much could you. Can you walk and how much can you. How much mobilization do you have in your legs?
- [15:04]
Gabe Martinez
So, yeah, so when the ID went off, it took my right leg above the knee and my left leg below the knee.
- [15:10]
John Bickley
Okay.
- [15:11]
Gabe Martinez
And then, as I said, like, I had this skull fracture. You could see the scar. And so that fractured my skull and slightly damaged the frontal lobe. And so, like I said, like, I was. I wasn't even sure of prosthetics and kind of how I would be able to be independent rather than dependent on everybody.
- [15:34]
John Bickley
Now, you. You started off saying that you're glad that you remember this day, that a lot of people don't when they have a traumatic incident like this. I think it's probably, you know, surprising for people to hear that you want to remember exactly what happened. Why is that important to you?
- [15:51]
Gabe Martinez
It's important to me. And like I say, I'm glad that I do recall it all in great detail because it gives Me, good perspective. I mean, here I am 15 years later, and, you know, life's not perfect for anybody, and there's ups and downs, and I always have that. That perspective of. And the clarity from 15 years ago when I was, you know, within inches of losing my life and not experiencing the ups and the downs that I am 15 years later. And so for me, it's. It's kind of that maybe reset or, you know, that. That kind of perspective to. To kind of ground myself again and bring myself to reality and be grateful for what I. I have and what I've endured up to this point.
- [16:37]
John Bickley
Yeah, I actually wanted to ask you about that next. How did your mindset shift during the early days of recovery?
- [16:44]
Gabe Martinez
I mean, like I said, there's good days and bad days. Definitely early on, I was. There was a lot of unknowns. I mean, my whole life was drastically changed in a. In an instant. And I didn't really know what life looked like for me, especially now having no legs. Lost both my legs at 22 years old. I was recently married, and so life was very uncertain at that point. In my mind, I figured that was pretty much it. You know, I didn't have legs, so I was figuratively, literally like half the man as I once was. And so my mentality at that point was I was glad to be alive, but I didn't know what it looked like. And so that's when I was literally. The day I woke up in the hospital in the United States was when I met the Semper Fine Americas Fund. And they were able to answer a lot of that for me, you know, because fortunately, slash, unfortunately, they had a lot of experience with my situation. So, yeah, my mentality then is similar to how it is now. And it's just. It's. It's gratitude. Despite ups and downs, it's extreme gratitude now.
- [18:00]
John Bickley
So as part of the recovery, my understanding is you got involved in adaptive sports, and that was part of your. The way that you managed to move forward and. And find new sort of a new life for yourself. Can you explain that period of your life?
- [18:18]
Gabe Martinez
Yeah, so as you said, adaptive sports was. Was a big part of my recovery. And I. I attribute that quite often to kind of my mentality today and kind of, you know, being mentally tough. Because after I was wounded, having those uncertainties through the hospital, while I was still active duty, and through separate America's Fund, I was introduced to adaptive sports. And my wife still to this day says I was like a yes man. Like, I. I said yes to anything. And Everything, whether it was, you know, rock climbing, skiing, things I've never even done before, I found myself doing it. And it was, it was great for my recovery because showed me what I could do. And there really, there weren't any limits to what I could or couldn't do because, you know, Marines are good at adapting and overcoming and being in rec therapy like that and seeing the adaptability of whatever sport it is or activity I wanted to do, there was an alternative and really there was no limits anymore. And it opened my eyes as to what I could and could do really.
- [19:27]
John Bickley
Are there, you know, across the country. I would think it maybe is pretty different depending on which area of the country you're in. But is there access for other people that have traumatic injuries to be involved in these kinds of sports leagues?
- [19:42]
Gabe Martinez
100. I mean, if you, if you're saying people as a whole, civilian or military, I know that there's plenty of non profits out there for even civilians. I know the Semper Fine America's Fund, they do have their team Semper Fi, which is, you know, kind of their, a branch of it, which is for, you know, recovery through sports, I think is their, is their slogan and strikes true. Because as I just said, like part of my recovery, the sports was a, was a big aspect of it. And so for anybody that's wanting to do it, I mean, they're eligible for through the fund. You know, obviously being military, that's certainly one way. And then I know there's, there's other nonprofit like Challenge Athletes Foundation. They help kids and youth and, you know, civilians greatly.
- [20:33]
John Bickley
Just to say you've become a strong advocate for fellow injured veterans. What are some of the biggest challenges they face after coming home that people might not realize?
- [20:44]
Gabe Martinez
I'd say some of the biggest challenges that veterans, especially my situation face after coming home is you're, I don't want to say disconnected, but we inevitably find ourselves not quite as connected as we were to, you know, our fellow service members. The facilities, you know, there at the hospital, I was surrounded by at the time, I was one of 150 marine amputees at the Nave Medical Center. So I was surrounded with a lot of people in the same situation. And then I retire and I find myself, you know, a thousand miles away back home in Colorado, and I'm not surrounded by that anymore. And so I'd say that's kind of the biggest and first challenge that veterans my situation would, would face is not really having that camaraderie anymore, maybe even feeling alone or insecure with their disability. And so I'd say that's probably the biggest thing. And unfortunately, it creeps up on you. I'm 15 years post injury, and I'd say halfway through, I found myself kind of experiencing the same thing. And so that's why the Semper Fine America's Fund means so much to me, because they were able to get me connected again.
- [22:06]
John Bickley
What are some of the ways that they do that? Like, you know, just logistically speaking, how does this play out in terms of what they offer people that are recovering?
- [22:15]
Gabe Martinez
Yeah, so the Semper Fine Americas Fund, they offer, like, many kind of, like I said, branches within their own organization. Like, there's the recreational side. They. Every service member with, within the organization is assigned a case manager. And they have case managers that. I say this all the time. You know, the fund is more than a fund. They're family. And when you're connected with that case manager, you have that person that connects with you, checks in with you, kind of sees. Sees where you're at, and they get to know you on a personal level. So you are introduced to so many of the internal, you know, services that they provide. I've experienced that for my tbi. My, obviously, the prosthetics. I just came home from a R and R weekend with my fellow double amputees that I served with. They flew us out to San Antonio, and for three days, I was just kind of. I was able to be with my brothers again and kind of get that reset again. But there's so many things that the fund can do. They've helped me pretty much physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. They've. They've. They've kind of checked all the boxes.
- [23:28]
John Bickley
What about the technology side of it? Had there been advances in the last 15 years in terms of prosthetics?
- [23:37]
Gabe Martinez
Oh, man. Prosthetic wise, like, medical technology is something that's always evolving. And I've seen some incredible advances, especially with upper extremities. Being able to crack an eggplay Jenga with your articulating fingers on a prosthetic. Like, wow. It's even, you know, they're able to tap into kind of, you know, your neurological systems to interact with it. The prosthetics are, you know, for lower limbs, like my. My legs, microchip processor, knees, and in it. And it's, It's. I have an app on my cell phone for my. My leg.
- [24:18]
John Bickley
Amazing.
- [24:19]
Gabe Martinez
And so it's. It's always evolving. I mean, it's. And it's something that I very much look forward To. To kind of seeing it continue to evolve and see how I could benefit from it.
- [24:30]
John Bickley
Incredible. I wanted to ask you about the Thanksgiving element of this. This is coming out Thanksgiving week, and, you know, obviously, this probably changes forever how you look at that holiday. You mentioned gratitude a lot, which seems appropriate for Thanksgiving. How has it changed your perspective on the holiday season?
- [24:49]
Gabe Martinez
I would say it's changed my perspective very much every year. I'm brought back, too, especially for me, given that my alive day, we call it the day, our anniversary when we were wounded. So for me and my alive day being either on or around Thanksgiving is. It's. It's. It was one of those blessings in disguise because it brings me back to that day 15 years ago, however many years ago. And like I said, gives me that reset perspective. I'm able to look around and see my family, my kids, you know, my. My wife and family, parts of, kind of how my. My future has evolved from.
- [25:31]
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Ad Host/Voice Actor
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Gabe Martinez
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Gabe Martinez
Yep.
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- [26:01]
Gabe Martinez
However many years ago. And so it gives me that perspective of even though every day is not perfect, even though, you know, many days I wish, you know, I had my legs or this didn't happen to me, it gives me so much to be thankful for. And then being on Thanksgiving just kind of amplifies that, you know, while I'm surrounded by family and friends and. And. And all the chaos that ensues with that. I mean, it's. It's. It's a huge blessing, and it's. It's a. It's a great reset for me to kind of have that perspective, which is a remarkable story.
- [26:33]
John Bickley
We appreciate you so much, just taking the time to talk with us, and happy holidays.
- [26:38]
Gabe Martinez
Thank you. You too. Happy holidays.
- [26:41]
John Bickley
That was retired Marine and Purple heart recipient Gabe Martinez, and this has been a Thanksgiving edition of Morning W.