Courage After Fire (12/2004)

Courage After Fire
Guardsman Kevin Pannell was on a routine foot patrol in Baghdad when an insurgent's grenade tore apart his world. After enduring 13 operations the young soldier from Arkansas now begins his next epic battle: learning to walk all over again.
BY LESLIE SABBAGH
Photography by Yunghi Kim

FIRST STEPS: Under the watchful eyes of therapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Kevin Pannell tries out a C-leg, the first computerized artificial limb.

Along the perimeterof a physical therapy clinic the size of a basketball court, a man moves slowly, relentlessly, one rocking step at a time. His concentration is ferocious: Push the walker; hop-step on the left prosthesis; swing the right leg, gone from the knee down; push the walker. It's draining work: Sweat streams down the man's face; he's breathing hard. A physical therapist pushing a black wheelchair walks alongside him; a prosthetist scrutinizes every movement. Specialist Kevin Pannell, a 26-year-old National Guardsman from Arkansas with the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, is using his new left leg for the first time.

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