Look Who it Was Random video

PURPLE HEART

730 views · Published 21 January 2012 · 1:42 · Indexed 8 October 2026

Channel: FOX NASHVILLE · 2012 · News & Politics

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A soldier who has waited a year and a half receives a special honor at Fort Campbell.
          
Staff Sergeant Raymond Young spent months recovering from his injuries in Afghanistan, and now he finally has his Purple Heart.

In a small conference room at Fort Campbell, Staff Sgt. Raymond Young is honored for his service.

He'll never forget the day in Afghanistan in August 2010 when his vehicle ran over an IED.

"I just remember hearing a real loud bang and it felt like my body got all the air sucked out of it," says Staff Sgt. Young.

Young and his five comrades were thrown into the air. Their vehicle landed on its side, and rammed into a mountain.

"I had to pull five of my best friends out of a vehicle and it's really hard to talk to those guys, because it replays the event in my head, and it makes it real hard for me," says Young.

Young was badly injured. He fractured two vertebrea and received a traumatic brain injury.
      
He spent five months re-learning speech and memory.

A year and a half later, Staff Sgt. Young has made a remarkable recovery.

"You have inspired us to be resilient beyond courage, to show us this isn't an end, it's a beginning of something else," says Brig. General Jeffrey Colt.

Surrounded by his senior commanders, Young receives the Purple Heart.
    
The award will remain in Young's family for generations.

"I just wanted the medal so I could pass it down when I have a child, I could pass it down," says Raymond Young.
  
After five years in the army, Staff Sgt. Young is now preparing for a new challenge.
    
He'll soon become a veteran and will move back home to Ohio.

His family will always remember his bravery, and he now has the medal to prove it.

"Love my wife to death, and my family to death, and I just do it for them, that's why I keep fighting," says Young.

Staff Sergeant  Young plans to purse a degree as an x-ray technician, and eventually learn to read MRI's and CT scans.

He says one day he hopes to work with other wounded soldiers.

For news updates follow John Dunn on twitter @WZTVJohnDunn

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