Morning Wire - Fifteen Thanksgivings Later: A Double Amputee’s Story of Gratitude

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

On Thanksgiving Day 2010, Marine Gabe Martinez’s life changed forever. After a series of IED explosions in Afghanistan, he lost both legs and suffered a traumatic brain injury. In this episode, Gabe recounts the moments after the blast, the harrowing rescue that followed, and the long road to recovery. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today’s Sponsors: Beam - Go to https://shopbeam.com/WIRE use code WIRE, and get up to 50% off during Beam’s Cyber Sale. Shopify - Go to https://Shopify.com/morningwire to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period and upgrade your selling today. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I remember everything was red. Like, all my vision was red, and I remember thinking, like, something really got rattled loose up, you know, up in my head. And what I realize is that it was blood going down from my skull into my eyes. And so the piece of shrapnel had gone through my helmet and into my forehead. So I remember wiping that free and looking down and seeing that my legs were, they were still there. One was hanging off to the side.

One was on my chest. That was retired Marine and Purple Heart recipient Gabe Martinez, Speaking about the life-altering event that took place 15 years ago this week, after a series of IEDs exploded on a roadside in Afghanistan. Martinez lost both of his legs, but upon returning home, he's found new life and purpose with the help of Semper Phi and America's Fund and adaptive sports. Now he's an advocate for other vets recovering from traumatic injuries. In this episode, we speak with Martinez about that life-changing Thanksgiving day in 2010

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Joining us now for this Thanksgiving week special is Gabe Martinez, retired Marine and Marine veteran advocate. Gabe, first, thank you for your service and thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate you so much for having me. First, we'd like to hear your story. What led you to enlist in the Marines? So when I'm asked this question about what led me to enlist, you know, I sometimes feel like it's cliche because it's, you know, I was, I was young in seventh grade when 9-11 happened,

but that very much was the kind of the spark, as you'd say, to kind of get me to where I am today. I was in seventh grade and didn't know much about it. But I just remember seeing the faces on every adult in my family, in my classes, and really got curious and learned about terrorism, you know, learned about al-Qaeda at the time and Taliban. And really from there, it kind of evolved for me, you know, as I got older, got into high school. And, of course, in high school, everybody's talking about which college you're going to apply to and whatnot. And I knew I wanted to go to college, but there was still something more. And so I found myself at the recruiter station, and I hit up every branch of service and found myself signing the dotted line with the United States Marine Corps in 2006.

So you were still in high school when you enlisted? And when did your first deployment start? My first deployment starts in early January 2008, just two years after I enlisted. So my first deployment was a Marine Expeditioner unit where we get on the Navy ships and we go out through kind of a security force in the waters. And so I was all over the Middle East. So you complete your first deployment. And then your second is to Afghanistan. And that's where your personal story really pivoted on Thanksgiving Day back in 2010.

What happened on that day? What do you remember most vividly about that day? Yeah, so Thanksgiving 2010 is obviously a day I'll never forget. I remember everything about it, and I'm blessed two notes to still have that because a lot of guys, you know, don't recollect. But yeah, for me, I was on my second deployment in the Marines. I was in for about three years at that point, and we were going to the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. And before that appointment, I knew it was going to be, you know, a tougher deployment. That was a real brutal year for some of the Marine Corps units out there.

It was the morning after Thanksgiving in Afghanistan, so still Thanksgiving here. We were going to do a longer mission set. And so we were at a local base stocking up on, you know, supplies and whatnot. Everything out there slow. In a vehicle or on foot. So we're probably about an hour into the convoy. when the first vehicle, which is equipped with ground penetrating radar panels, to see what's in the ground, stopped and said something was interfering with the computer system.

And so he was instructed to reboot, reset the panels, and then proceed. So the driver did as instructed. He rebooted the system and started to move forward. Convoy starts going. And then boom. An IED goes off, detonates the second vehicle, which is also an engine. another husky single-man vehicle with the computer system, it gets struck.

So when that happens, at the time, my job, I was part of a team that we would dismount. We looked for secondary IEDs, Tritiary, look for any enemy in the area, command wire, whatnot. We dismount. We're looking for that. And at this point, I mean, there's

debris from the down vehicle everywhere. And we clear from the vehicle back, you know, of no threat, essentially. And now I have to clear in front of the vehicle, like to get up and around the vehicle. And I'm on the road, and like I said, I'm sitting next to a 26,000 pound chunk of metal, and I'm holding a metal detector. And so that metal detector was kind of rendered useless at that point. So I did, just as I had many times, I got down on the ground and kind of manually would sift through the earth, loose soil, kind of look for interrogate, what we call it.

And as I'm interrogating, you know, I'm not coming up with anything, but I remember one of my best friends, Sergeant Ibrahim, Atay at the time, he was mentioning to me that he saw some disturbed earth ahead of the vehicle. So as I'm talking with him, I kind of deemed the area in front of me clear. So I stand up in that first step, like I said, my metal detector was rendered useless at that point, since I'm standing next to a chunk of 26,000 pounds of metal. I stand up after clearing that. And I take maybe one or two steps forward. And right after that, boom, the second IED detonates right beneath me.

It ended up being a 25 pound. improvised explosive device packed in a glass jar. And so the IED goes off. And I remember getting tossed up into the air. And then I landed in this crater that the IED had created. And it was dusty and it was kind of the fog of war, as you see, as you hear of. And I remember everything was red. Like all my vision was red.

And I remember thinking like something really got rattled. loose up, you know, up in my head. And what I realize is that it was blood going down from my skull into my eyes. And so the piece of shrapnel had gone through my helmet and into my forehead. So I remember wiping that free and looking down and seeing that my legs were, they were still there. One was hanging off to the side. One was on my chest. And I remember being kind of angered.

And so I remember throwing one of my legs. And right, no sooner do I throw it, I realized it wasn't completely unattached because that's when kind of reality sets in. So I remember being in this hole, my medical bag was scattered everywhere. And as I'm trying to pull myself out of the IED, the hole, boom, a third one goes off right behind me. And that ended up being my best friend, Justin Gertner. coming up and he had stepped on a third IED.

And so he had lost both of his legs. And so I remember getting put on the litter, the stretcher, and as they call in the Medevac helicopter for now three of us, and as they had me on the litter and they're taking me to the helicopter, the stretcher breaks and I fall off of the stretcher into the ground. and as they put me back on and they load me on the helicopter, I see kind of them bringing somebody else on. And that's when I learned that it was my buddy Gertner,

as they loaded him on right after me. From there, they fly us to the nearest medical, or military medical facility with the means of, you know, surgery. And they fly us there. they do kind of finish the amputations, clean out the wounds, and then kind of get us stabilized. And it was there that I remember seeing some sailors off in the corner with the satellite phone. And I was able to muster to a doctor like, I wanted that phone. And so he gives me the phone and somehow I'm able to coherently give him the number and he calls my wife.

And so there I was calling my wife telling her what happened maybe within an hour of what happened, which is obviously not the norm. It's incredible. And so from there, Justin, he survived. He lost both of his legs and almost his arm. And then the driver of the vehicle was more concussed. And so from there, they fly us to kind of, from that point on,

it's washed the wound. stabilize, get us off as fast as they can just that we get to the United States. So from there, I went to Balgram, and then Balgram to Germany, Germany to Bethesda, Maryland. And all that happened within probably about 48 hours. And that's when I was just to find. Just a total whirlwind. How much could you grasp what had happened? Was it real to you?

Is this, are you looking and saying, my life has changed forever? Or can you not understand it at that moment? I knew I had lost my legs. I remember as I was transported from, you know, to point A to B, B to C, it was still a matter of like, am I going to live? Am I going to survive this? And then what does life look like for me? Like I had been 22 years old, you know, and my life was changed in an instant. And now I was physically different.

And so I didn't know what life was. life looked like for me as an amputee. I quite honestly, I was oblivious to the fact of prosthetics. And so in my mind, I thought I was going to be stuck in a wheelchair, dependent on everybody else for the rest of my life. Yeah, and to be clear, where was the injury exactly, and how much could you, can you walk in, how much can you, how much mobilization do you have in your legs?

So, yeah, so when the IED went off, it took my right leg above the knee, knee and my left leg below the knee. Okay. And then, as I said, like, I had this skull fracture. You could see the scar. And so that fractured my skull and slightly damaged the frontal low. And so, like I said, like I wasn't even sure of prosthetics and kind of how I would be able to be independent rather than dependent on everybody.

Now, you started off saying that you're glad that you're glad that you remember this day that a lot of people don't when they have a traumatic incident like this. I think it's probably, you know, surprising for people to hear that you want to remember exactly what happened. Why is that important to you? It's important to me. And like I say, I'm glad that I do recall it all in great detail because it gives me good perspective. I mean, here I am 15 years later. And, you know, life's not perfect for anybody and there's ups and downs and I always have that that perspective of and the clarity from 15 years ago when I was you know within inches of losing my life and not experiencing the

ups and the downs that I am 15 years later and so for me it's it's kind of that maybe reset or you know that that kind of perspective to to kind of ground myself again and bring myself to reality and be grateful for what I have and what I've endured up to this point. Yeah, I actually wanted to ask you about that next. How did your mindset shift during the early days of recovery? I mean, like I said, there's good days and bad days. Definitely early on, I was, there was a lot of unknowns. I mean, my whole life was drastically changed in an instant. And I didn't really know what life looked like for me, especially now having no. legs lost both my legs at 22 years old I was recently married and so life was very

uncertain at that point in my mind I figured that was pretty much it you know I'd have legs so I was figuratively literally like half the man as I once was and so my mentality at that point was I was glad to be alive but I didn't know what it looked like and so that's when I was literally the day I woke up in the hospital in the United States was when I met the Semperfying America's Fund. And they were able to answer a lot of that for me, you know, because fortunately slash, unfortunately, they had a lot of experience with my situation. So yeah, my mentality then is similar to how it is now. And it's just it's gratitude. Despite ups and downs,

it's extreme gratitude. Now, so as part of the recovery, my understanding is you got involved in adaptive sports and that was part of your, the way that you managed to move forward and find new, sort of a new life for yourself. Can you explain that period of your life? Yeah. So as you said, adaptive sports was a big part of my recovery. And I attribute that quite often to kind of my mentality today and kind of, you know, being mentally tough because after I was wounded, having those uncertainties through the hospital while I was still active duty and through Semperfying America's Fund, I was introduced to adaptive sports. And my wife still to this day says I was like a yes man.

Like I said yes to anything and everything, whether it was, you know, rock climbing, skiing, things I've never even done before. I found myself doing it. And it was, it was great for my recovery because it, it, it was, it was great. it showed me what I could do. And really there weren't any limits to what I could or couldn't do because, you know, Marines are good at adapting and overcoming. And being in rec therapy like that and seeing the adaptability of whatever sport it is or activity I wanted to do, there was an alternative. And really, there was no limits anymore.

And it opened my eyes as to what I could do, really. Are there, you know, across the country, I would think it maybe is pretty different depending on which area of the country you're in. But is there access for other people that have traumatic injuries to be involved in these kinds of sports leagues? 100%. I mean, if you're saying people as a whole civilian or military, I know that there's plenty of nonprofits out there for even civilians. I know the Semperfine America's Fund, they do have their team Semperfy, which is kind of their branch of it, which is for recovery through sports, I think, is their slogan. And it strikes true because, as I just said, part of my recovery, the sports was a big aspect of it.

And so for anybody that's wanting to do it, I mean, they're eligible through the fund, you know, obviously being a military, that's certainly one way. And then I know there's other nonprofit, like Challenge Athletes Foundation. They help kids and youth and, you know, civilians greatly just the same. You've become a strong advocate for fellow injured veterans. What are some of the biggest challenges they face after coming home that people might not realize? I'd say some of the biggest challenges that veterans, especially my situation, face after coming home is you're, I don't want to say disconnected, but we inevitably find

ourselves not quite as connected as we were to, you know, our fellow service members, the facilities, you know, there at the hospital, I was surrounded by, at the time, I was one of 150 marine amputees at the Navy Medical Center. So I was surrounded with a lot of people in the same situation. And then I retire and I find myself, you know, a thousand miles away back home in Colorado. And I'm not surrounded by that anymore. And so I'd say that's kind of the biggest and first challenge that veterans my situation would face is not really having that camaraderie anymore. Maybe even feeling alone or insecure with their disability. And so I'd say that's probably the...

the biggest thing. And it, unfortunately, it creeps up on you. You know, I'm 15 years post-injury. And I'd say, you know, halfway through, I found myself kind of experiencing the same thing. And so that's why the Semperfine America's Fund means so much to me because they were able to get me connected again. What are some of the ways that they do that? Like, you know, just logistically speaking, how does this play out in terms of what they offer people that are recovering? Yeah, so the Semaphide America's Fund, they offer many kind of, like I said, branches within their own organization. Like there's the recreational side. Every service member within the organization is assigned to case manager. And they have case managers that, I say this all the time.

The fund is more than a fund, their family. And when you're connected with that case manager, you have that person that connects with you, checks in with you. kind of sees where you're at and they get to know you on a personal level. So you are introduced to so many of the internal, you know, services that they provide. I've experienced that for my TBI, my, obviously the prosthetics. I just came home from a R&R weekend with my fellow double amputees that I served with. They flew us out to San Antonio. And for three days, I was just kind of, I was able to be with my brothers again and kind of get that

reset again. But there's so many things that the fund can do. They've helped me in pretty much physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, they've kind of checked all the boxes. What about the technology side of it? Had there been advances in the last 15 years in terms of prosthetics? Oh man, prosthetic-wise. Medical technology is something that's always evolving. And I've seen some incredible advances, especially with upper extremities, being able to crack an egg, it played jenga with your articulating fingers on a prosthetic. Wow. It's even, you know, they're able to tap into kind of, you know, your neurological systems

to interact with it. The prosthetics are, you know, for lower limbs, like my legs, microchip processor knees in it. and it's it's i have an app on my cell phone for my my my leg amazing and so it's it's always evolving i mean it's and it's something that i very much look forward to to to kind of seeing and continue to evolve and see how i could benefit from it incredible i wanted to ask you about the thanksgiving element of this this is coming out thanksgiving week and you know obviously this probably changes forever how you look at that holiday you mentioned gratitude a lot which seems appropriate for Thanksgiving.

How has it changed your perspective on the holiday season? I would say it's changed my perspective very much. Every year I'm brought back to, especially for me, given that my alive day, we call it, the day our anniversary when we were wounded. So for me and my live day being either on or around Thanksgiving is, it's, it was one of those blessings in disguise because it brings me back. to that day, 15 years ago, how many years ago.

And like I said, gives me that reset perspective. I'm able to look around and see my family, my kids, you know, my wife and family, parts of kind of how my future has evolved from 15 years ago, how many years ago. And so it gives me that perspective of even though every day is not perfect, even though, you know, many days I wish, you know, I had my legs or it just didn't happen to me. It gives me so much to be thankful for. And then being on Thanksgiving just kind of amplifies that. You know, while I'm surrounded by family and friends and all the chaos that ensues with that,

I mean, it's a huge blessing. And it's a great reset for me to kind of have that perspective. Just a remarkable story. We appreciate you so much just taking the time to talk with us. And happy holidays. Thank you. You too. Happy holidays. That was retired Marine and Purple Holidays.

heart recipient Gabe Martinez, and this has been a Thanksgiving edition of Morning Wire.