Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a long post. I really tried to pear it down, but this young soldier has one of the most interesting stories I’ve heard. I enjoyed every minute I talked to him. My only regret is that I can’t type EVERYTHING we talked about. Not because it isn’t interesting or safe for print but because I would never stop writing. It’s already taken me three days to finish this and I can’t keep you in the dark any longer. I had the opportunity honor to sit down and speak with SPC Sergio Lopez on Monday. He is currently staying at the Fisher House on the Walter Reed grounds. Sergio is a member of the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, TX. Growing up, he always had a love for tanks. Sergio dreamed of being in the military all his life. As long as he could remember, he and his friends wanted to be G.I. Joe. Only one problem…Sergio isn’t an American citizen.

He was born in Mexico City, Mexico. His parents divorced when he was about four years old. When his mom remarried, her new husband convinced her to move to the states. Living in a big American city presented many challenges for Sergio. He began to hang out with the wrong crowd and dabbled in gangs. He thought it would be better if he just went back to Mexico. His father had since remarried and Sergio didn’t see eye to eye with his dad’s new wife. They had a child together and Sergio could see that they seemed happy as a family and had a good thing going. He changed his mind and moved back to Chicago with his mom for good at the age of 16.

It was during his high school years that he met his future wife, Maria. Sergio’s younger brother was dating Maria’s cousin. He invited Sergio and Maria to a party where they met. They were married in July 2002. After September 11, he began talking to his new bride about the possibility of joining the Army.

Sergio realized that Maria probably would not be receptive to the idea of having him join the Army. He went to the recruiter and gathered all the information he could. He wanted to know first and foremost what would happen to his family when/if he joined the Army. In the Army, there are two types of people, “the fighters and everyone else,” he said. He wanted to be a fighter. However, he didn’t like walking either. He chose to be a Tanker. He was told about a motto that has been passed down for years by tankers: “Why carry a weapon, when your weapon can carry you?” He called her up at work to break the news. Maria is very supportive of her husband and wanted to make sure that if he joined he would be doing something he loves. She still wasn’t happy about it, but supported him. They made an agreement that they’d keep doing it as long as everyone was happy with it.

He tried joining in January 2003, but there were issues with his green card. Someone had stolen Sergio’s wallet with the green card in it and he needed it to join the Army. By May 2003, everything was in order and he shipped to basic training to begin his life inside a rumbling hulk of steel armor and heavy munitions. However, getting behind the wheel of a tank wasn’t in his future any time soon.

After graduating from his training, the Lopez family was sent to Fort Hood, Texas, home of the mighty 1st Cavalry Division and 4th Infantry Division. His orders were sending him to the Cav, where he wanted to go. He ended up in the 4th ID. Just two week after arriving in Killeen, he was shipped to his first tour in Iraq. Talk about on-the-job training!! Unfortunately, all the new guys like Sergio were placed in staff positions, forced to drive HMMWVs wherever they went.

He had to find a way into a tank. He volunteered for a one week assignment escorting EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) guys to blow up IEDs and other threats. On one such trip, he rode with some guys from another company. Sensing an opportunity to get into a tank he told them how he’d do anything to get out of what he was doing and into a line company. The TC (truck commander) of the HMMWV was a platoon sergeant in one such company. He promised to be the hardest worker he’s ever had and ensured that he would not be a problem child. The PSG was able to work out a deal and got Sergio onto his team. Once again, things weren’t as they seemed.

Turns out the NCO that he would be working for was the scout platoon sergeant. Scouts don’t use tanks. The whole time he was there he was working for scouts in trucks. He would not see a tank. Not only that, but he had to learn a completely new weapon, the Mark-19 (an automatic grenade launcher). Tankers don’t use Mark-19s, so he had never been trained on it. He was taken to an open field that served as a range and became intimately familiar with a weapon he had never seen before. After spending five months in Iraq working with the scouts, he came back home in March 2004.

In January, he was sent back to take over control of Baghdad from the 3rd ID. His luck was about to change. In his own words:

“I wasn’t on a special mission. We had two OPs [observation posts] outside the FOB [forward operating base]. The company commander chose me to be his driver. Everyone tried to fight it because I was about to be and NCO and they wanted me leading troops. Since we were just taking over, I had to drive people between the OPs and the FOB. On this particular mission, I was taking an interpreter from the FOB to a compound where some scouts from the 101st Airborne were preparing for a raid in the middle of the night.

“My commander had a policy that every truck that left the FOB had to have a medic. So, in addition to me and the interpreter there was a medic and gunner. The compound wasn’t more than a 10 minute drive from the FOB. On that trip, we got hit by an IED. I immediatly lost consciousness and when I came to I was being worked on by the medic. I looked over at my truck and saw the front driver’s side tire completely sideways and that part of the truck destroyed. The rest of the truck was completely untouched and no one else was hurt. I later found out that the IED was command detonated.”

Someone was out there waiting patiently for Sergio to drive into his killsack. The devil himself was sitting calmly on the sidelines waiting to take the life of a soldier fighting for a country he wasn’t even a citizen of. I can hear the silent, sacrilegious chants of “alluah akbarâ€? (God is great) as he closed the circuits that would seal Sergio’s fate.

It simply amazed me that when I asked him how it all happened, he started with “it wasn’t an important mission.” Talk about humble. This young soldier was on the road more than most people, putting his life on the line EACH time. This was perhaps one of the most dangerous missions we ask soldiers to perform.

Sergio’s foot, ankles and lower legs were completely shattered, “broken in a million pieces”. Doctors told him that he had a choice: keep his legs and have the bones fused together or amputate below the knee. He knew that he wouldn’t have as much mobility if he kept his legs and opted to have them amputated. With today’s technology, he’ll be able to move as good as when he had his actual legs.

Sergio has no regrets about going to Iraq. He doesn’t blame anyone for what’s happened to him except the spineless bastich that used such a cowardly tool to injure him. If he were able to do it all over again, he’d “jump right back in his tank and give them hell”. He’d much rather be fighting them there than having them come here and hurt people who can’t defend themselves and just want to “get up and feed their families.”

Sergio is father to a beautiful, 2-year old little girl, Sasha. They are expecting their second child in August. The Lopez family plans to leave the military and begin the next stage of their life. Sergio hopes his citizenship will become final before he leaves Fisher house, something an Army Lieutenant Colonel is working hard to achieve. He wants to go to school and earn his criminal justice degree and become a homocide detective. I, for one, wish him the best of luck in anything he does. He and his family are truly beautiful people and deserve everything life can give them. If you’d like to send Sergio and Maria well-wishes, drop me a line for their emails.

Check out Blackfive’s story about SPC Lopez HERE.