Word: bozik
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Dates: during 2005-2005
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...deal. "I loved him for who he was in his heart, and he still had that. And I loved him for what he had in his mind, and he still had that," she says now. On New Year's Eve, just eight weeks after he became a triple amputee, Bozik left his hospital bed in a tuxedo and wheeled down to the flower- and family-filled hospital chapel to marry his Texan bride...
...Bozik, a native of Wilmington, N.C., was on patrol south of Baghdad looking for roadside bombs when his humvee rolled over a mine. "Why would I bother thinking life is unfair?" he says, in reply to a question. "I've already been set back in life with the loss of my limbs. Why would I want to hurt myself more?" In his first two weeks at Walter Reed, psychiatrists and psychologists poured through Bozik's door, offering a sympathetic ear. They don't stop by anymore; Bozik has convinced them that he doesn't need them...
Dosed with morphine three times a day, Bozik has long red scars from more than 20 surgeries, is making slow progress with his prostheses, often falls asleep at 3 p.m. because of his agonizing and exhausting physical therapy, and won't be able to leave Walter Reed for many more months. He has pins and plates in all three stumps and in his remaining left arm, plus a lifelong elevated risk of arthritis, back and heart problems. But he's alive and thanks God every day for that...
...Bozik attributes a big part of his relentlessly upbeat attitude to his new wife, but some of it is constitutional. "Even as a child growing up, Joey never ever threw a tantrum, never cursed," says his mother Gail, who raised three boys alone after her husband died of a heart attack when Joey was 2. Her youngest son joined the Army in early 2001 because money was tight and he wanted to study criminology and become a law-enforcement officer. His commitment to the military only grew stronger after 9/11. "Even knowing that I would lose three limbs, I would...
...Bozik has to work out how he's going to support the family he and Jayme want to have. His mother has set up a trust fund for donor contributions, and the Homes for Our Troops organization plans to help Joey and Jayme build a home--they're leaning toward settling in Colorado--with the wide doorways and specialized bathrooms that amputees require. But Bozik is the kind of man who will open a packet of chips with his teeth rather than ask for assistance. A law-enforcement career is now out of the question, but he's thinking...