Just two days after his 18th birthday, Josh Forbess joined the United States Army. Forbess, like many American boys, spent a good portion of his youth on the athletic field. He played varsity football and wrestled for Eisenhower High School in Decatur, Illinois. Upon realizing that the NFL was merely a pipe dream, he enlisted in the military. He found out quickly that he loved it.
Forbess was assigned to Battery C, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, an element of the 101 st Airborne Division. On November 15, 2003, Staff Sgt. Forbess was in a Black Hawk helicopter flying over Mosul, Iraq, when it collided with another Black Hawk. He was one of only five survivors and the only survivor from his section.
When the surgeon first treated Forbess at Brooke Army Medical Center, a modern state-of-the-art, 450-bed health care facility in San Antonio, Texas, he was covered in soot after the helicopter crash. An examination using a camera and fiber optic cable showed that his lungs, which should have been pink, looked like the inside of a chimney. Forbess suffered severe smoke inhalation and broken bones in both of his hands.
Forbess developed pneumonia soon after arriving. In fact, doctors had to turn him on his stomach to improve oxygenation, a last-ditch step used to save victims with extensive lung damage. He was kept on a ventilator for two weeks because of the severity of the smoke inhalation and spent nearly two months in ICU.
About eight or nine weeks after the accident, Forbess was told of the helicopter crash. After extensive rehabilitation and numerous surgeries, he had to learn to walk again and become self-sufficient. Because the crash left him with severe burns to his face, head, right shoulder and right arm, he has undergone a series of surgeries and skin graphs to rebuild his nose and ear.
Forbess was battered, but far from beaten. He was married on September 3, 2005. He remains on active duty.
All information provided by: http://www.buildinghomesforheroes.org/hero-stories/josh-forbess.htm
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