While serving in Iraq in 2007, Matthew Bradford, left, was severely injured by an improvised explosive device. He credits the undying support of his wife, Amanda, whom he met afterward, with helping him bring about positive change. (All photos provided)
By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
Matthew Bradford has participated in scuba diving, fishing, rock climbing, surfing, swimming and distance races. He’s walked 10 miles in the Bataan Memorial Death March in White Sands, New Mexico, and he’s shot a nine-point buck deer.
Perhaps those accomplishments aren’t that unusual — until you learn the rest of his inspiring story.
Steve Flairty grew up feeling good about Kentucky. He recalls childhood trips orchestrated by his father, with the take-off points in Campbell County. The people and places he encountered then help define his passion about the state. “Kentucky by Heart” shares part and parcel of his joy. A little history, much contemporary life, intriguing places, personal experiences, special people, book reviews, quotes and even a little humor will, hopefully, help readers connect with their own “inner Kentucky.”
While in high school, Matthew had his life all mapped out. He was going to be in the military. The terrorists’ attack on America on Sept. 11, 2001, while he was only a high school freshman, inspired him in that direction.
“In December of my senior year in high school, I signed paperwork for the delayed entry program into the Marine Corps,” he said. “After 9/11, my whole goal was to be in the military.”
And he did realize his goal—at least for a while. But then war, with all its dirty, ugly realities, imposed itself in a physically permanent way on a good and decent young man who loved his country. He was understandably devastated, for sure — but not in a lasting way. True grit and undying support from a loved one can bring about positive change, and it did in Cpl. Matthew Bradford’s case.
Therein lies the beginning of this uplifting story.
Getting ready to enter his first year in high school, Matthew, a typical struggling adolescent, decided to move from hometown Winchester to Dinwiddie, in southeastern Virginia, to stay with his father. He would be farther away from his beloved University Kentucky Wildcats basketball program, but he figured the change of scenery “would steer me in the right direction.”
It seemed to work. He was active, played a lot of sports, especially basketball, and when not doing that, kept an admiring eye on the military personnel from nearby Fort Lee, whom he often saw hanging out at the local mall and admired the buzz surrounding them. Those influences helped prepare him physically and mentally for the challenging rigors of Marine Corps basic training that would begin on Sept. 6, 2005, a few months after his high school graduation.
Matthew Bradford is lucky to be alive. When the IED exploded, ‘I took the full blast,’ he said.
Matthew’s early days of his Marine Corps involvement were a bit harrowing, but a scenario of which generations of Marines can identify closely. “They put us on a bus and drove us down to Parris Island (South Carolina) for boot camp, an eight- or nine-hour ride from home,” he recalled.
They arrived at the Marine Corps base in the middle of the night, and things got eerie real fast.
“We pulled in there and saw the guard, and everybody on the bus just shut up. Then, they opened the bus door and yelled at us to get out. It was the first time I’d ever been yelled at like that,” said Matthew, who retains the vivid mind’s image of yellow mats set in formation for the troops after coming off the bus. “Every Marine who went through Parris Island or San Diego stands on those footsteps. It’s their first touch of Marine Corps life.”
There were many more instances of yelling and the grueling training regimen, but even with the hard-nosed treatment coming with full brunt force, Matthew had no second thoughts. He was resolute in his decision to engage in military service in the Marine Corps, and he knew what it entailed. “If you go to boot camp and don’t get yelled at, there’s something wrong,” he said. “Playing sports growing up and having that discipline made it easy (for me) to go into the Marines once I got used to it.”
It was a good start for Matthew and his dream. After a successful boot-camp experience, he was stationed in Hawaii, where he graduated from infantry school in March 2006. Two big obstacles were now overcome, but for the gung-ho Matthew to be content, he wanted to be where the action took place, and that was to be deployed. Soon, he got his wish. In September, six months after graduating from infantry school, he found himself with his buddies on a plane to Iraq. Show me the action, he thought, and he was excited for the opportunity to be a part of it.
His unit was deployed in Haditha, a farming city of about 100,000, in the northcentral part of Iraq, Al Anbar Province, set along the Euphrates River with an important hydroelectric plant. In January 2007, Matthew was on patrol on a road that had been barricaded to deter insurgents, a strong presence there in the early years of the conflict. It seemed relatively peaceful that day, but this was Iraq, and it was war.
“I was walking past a compound wall that came up to an opening next to some palm trees,” he said. “I looked down at some wires that ran into a pipe inside, and I was standing on the road exactly on top of the bomb in the pipe underneath the road…and it blew up in my face and shrapnel immediately blinded me. The last thing I saw is what took my vision from me.”
In the aftermath, way past the moment when Matthew’s life forever changed by an improvised explosive device alongside a road in a far off land, it became clear that matters were even worse.
Matthew and Amanda Bradford were married in 2012.
“I took the full blast,” he said. “My left leg was amputated from a spot above the knee and my right leg was also damaged badly, and it later had to be amputated. All my bones across the top of my hand were broken and the tendons were torn. It took my left eye out, and I now have a prosthetic eye. There are a few pieces of shrapnel in my head where I can’t have an MRI done. In my abdomen, a piece of my small intestine was removed. My bladder was ruptured and my stomach was bruised.”
He gives great credit to the Marine and Naval staff, who “got me and my team leader out of Haditha and took care of us.” He included Doc Ihmud, the corpsmen attached to his platoon and squad that day, as well as the 2nd Squadron. “They are my heroes,” he noted. “They are my heroes and forever my brothers.”
Very lucky to be alive, Matthew was put into a medically induced coma for three weeks at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland and had numerous surgeries. After transferring to the Paula Trauma Center in Richmond, Virginia, for a few months, he was back at Bethesda to receive his prosthetic left eye. His next progression was at the Center for the Intrepid, located on the campus of Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio. There he received intensive prosthetic therapy, especially important because of what it did to make him eligible to, of all things, reenlist in the Marine Corp.
It was difficult for the immediate period of consciousness after Matthew was hurt, and his attitude bore no resemblance to the outgoing and positive one he exudes now. “That (getting hurt) crushed me,” he said. “When I was in the hospital, there were moments when I didn’t want to live again. I was mean to everyone who came in to see me.”
But in those dark days, a small gesture by a kindly person at bedside served to lift his spirits. “A Navy corpsman saw how skinny I was,” he said, “and she brought me some milk and two brownies. It was the first meal I truly ate after getting hurt that wasn’t from a feeding tube.”
With time to collect his thoughts while undergoing care from the medical staff, a feeling of hopefulness began to emerge in Matthew’s mindset. Interacting with colleagues who incurred similar debilitating injuries gave him a sense of not being alone. He recalled meeting an injured Army soldier who expressed sympathy for Matthew’s blindness.
“I felt like he was worse off than me,” Matthew said. “The guy had severe burns all over his body, and I couldn’t believe he thought he was better off than me. He was in and out of surgeries for multiple years with his burns and skin grafts, but he was the biggest jokester and the happiest guy I ever met. He made me realize to keep my head up and have a great attitude about my life and injuries.”
The Bradford family now calls Lexington home.
When Matthew entered Intrepid Center in Texas, he focused on mobility, and he made rapid progress. “In three weeks I stood up on my prosthetic legs for the first time. I wanted to learn how to walk first. Then it would be a lot easier to overcome the blindness. I finally was able to take a bus and subway downtown.” He also learned how to use the computer and the Internet, check and write emails, and even build a birdhouse.
From there, Matthew developed what some might call an impractical idea. He believed he could still serve effectively, and desired to re-enlist into the Marine Corps. He applied, and after a lengthy evaluation from the medical review board, he was again permitted to take the oath of allegiance to his country on April 7, 2010—and became the first blind and double-amputee in Marine Corps history to do so, along with having his rank promoted to corporal.
With his reenlistment, he was assigned to Wounded Warrior Battalion East at Camp Lejeune, N.C. It was on that occasion that Amanda came into Matthew’s life, and his outlook grew even brighter.
“Amanda was working for a nonprofit organization that was putting on a kayak trip for the Wounded Warriors,” said Matthew. “My mother was going to stay with me in North Carolina and we were waiting for the house to be ready. Amanda, myself, and my mother hit it off from the start, and when the house was ready, Amanda helped us move.”
Matthew and Amanda grew closer, and one year later the tough as nails Marine demonstrated his romantic, and imaginative, side of his personality. “We went on a trip to Myrtle Beach exactly one year after we met—June 7. Surprised as she was, I told her to wait until we got to the top of the Sky Wheel…Once we got to the top, I proposed.” Amanda’s response was a question: “Did you just propose?”
Matthew and Amanda were married on April 7, 2012, and live today in Lexington with two stepchildren and one child from their marriage. “Amanda is my best friend and my soulmate,” said Matthew. “She’s a good cook, and she’s always there for somebody to talk to. We get along so well, and I couldn’t live my life without her.”
Then, he added with a grin: “I did pretty good for being a blind guy.”
Matthew has not only gained the love and support of his wife and family, but his example of overcoming obstacles is remarkable. He is making steady progress in college classes at the University of Kentucky, and is pursuing a degree in mass communications. He particularly enjoys college and professional sports, and he’d like to work in that realm in the future. And he likes the physical challenges.
“It thrills me to do these things,” said Matthew, who also appears on radio shows, has been recognized on TV and sporting events, and does occasional speaking engagements. He always praises the efforts of America’s Wounded Warriors and the great way he was treated by the Marine Corps. He emphasizes, always, the positives of his everyday existence: “I’ve learned that you never know when something is going to change your life.”
Matthew Bradford knows that from his own experience. “Don’t live for tomorrow, live for today. Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I don’t have a vision.”
Does anyone out there want to challenge this amazing person?
Note: This story is included in the book, “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4.” Matthew will be speaking at the Cornerstone Christian Church, Winchester on Sunday, July 5, at 10:30 a.m.
Northern Kentucky native Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of six books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and five in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. His new book, “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4,” has recently been released and is available for purchase. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, as well as a weekly KyForward and NKyTribune columnist and a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Read his past columns for excerpts from all his books. him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or friend him on Facebook. (Steve’s photo by Connie McDonald)
