Soldier celebrates life year after he lost his leg

November 24, 2004

Soldier Celebrates Life After Losing Leg
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Staff Sgt. Joshua Olson called it his "Alive Day," the one-year anniversary of the day he lost his leg in Iraq. He marked the date by traveling from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington back to the Fort Campbell woods where he once instructed men as a squad leader. Instead of camouflage, he wore jeans and a T-shirt, and used crutches to get around on one leg.

He wanted to get back to the comrades who helped him after he was hit by rocket fire. And he wanted to express his thanks, simply for being alive.

"Like I told these guys, `I would give anything, anything to trade places with any of you guys right now,'" Olson said. "I would. That's the total truth, but there's a power greater than me that has something else for me, so I move on."

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