Amputee GI Sets Example In Iraq

When he met reporters at the checkpoint at the end of Baghdad's most dangerous road, Capt. David Rozelle looked different.

But it wasn't only the uniform. His limp had nearly disappeared too.

"I'm doing this job, and I don't think that someone with two legs could do it any better," he says.

As CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports, his right foot was blown off when his Humvee hit a landmine at the start of the war.

Back then he told us he wanted to prove to the insurgents he would return to Iraq. He even wrote a book about it.

Now, both he and technology have come a long way.

"I made a war leg, the Brave Rifles patch and the U.S. flag deployed going toward the enemy," he

He helped design a special prosthetic foot for Iraq - one with an ankle joint - it's his innovation, one that may be sold commercially.

"I've tested it in the battlefields of Iraq," he says. "What better advertisement is that, ya know?"

He gets around the base on his wife's old mountain bike. Checking on the soldiers he now commands.

But his return to battle hasn't been easy.

"Walking in the sand and walking in the rock is tough on my stump, and it's tough on my stump, and it's tough on me physically," says Rozelle.

So is staying in shape.

He used to run three miles a day. Now he averages between three and four miles every other day.

"I gotta rest my knees you know," he says.

He used his prosthetic foot to run last year's New York City marathon. That was part of what helped prove to the Army that he was ready to return to combat.

If you think his story is remarkable so far, just listen to what he's going to do when he gets home.

For the next two years, Rozelle will be working with amputees at Walter Reed Army Hospital, counseling them through what he's already been through. A model citizen perhaps, but, he says, he's a model soldier first.

"There's people giving a much greater sacrifice than me, and whenever I feel sorry for myself, I remember them," he says.

He's not the only amputee, but he is the first to return to battle here. His plan may have been to show the insurgents something, but he's given something much more to those around him - both at home, and at war.