'Miracle' Soldier Battling Back

As a member of the 82nd Airborne, Staff Sgt. Dan Metzdorf was accustomed to leaping out of airplanes, and leading the charge for the U.S. Army. But 10 days into his deployment in Iraq, he knew life would never be the same.

It was Jan. 27 when, on routine patrol about 30 miles south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off as he and fellow soldiers were trying to clear a highway.

"I felt myself hit the ground," Metzdorf says. "Then, all the pain sets in. And it hurt so bad -- I couldn't feel my right foot, but it was still attached to me. That's the only part I couldn't feel, but everything else was so much pain."

His leg was so badly damaged it had to be amputated.

His wife, Teresa, remembers having to tell Dan's mother. "That was probably the hardest phone call I ever made," she said, cryng. "And she already knew. She -- she didn't know what happened to him. But she had a feeling. And when I called her, it was so hard.

Metzdorf spent the early months of his rehab at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C.

At first, facing life as an amputee was daunting. "I felt like a -- how am I gonna deal with this? How's my wife gonna deal with this? How is all this stuff gonna work out?

Yet, the Metzdorfs know they're fortunate.

Three other soldiers, 2nd Lt. Luke James, Sgt. Cory Mracek and Staff Sergeant Lester Kinney, were killed in the blast.

Teresa knows, "The other three soldiers that were killed, they were all within the same radius. So, it could have just as easily been him."

With that perspective, Dan Metzdorf refuses to feel sorry for himself. "It's just a miracle by God that I'm still alive," he says.

"You know, it's a huge thing that happened to me, but it's not that bad," he chuckled. "You know, some people have bad hair days, I have bad leg days."

Last month, he competed in the New York City Marathon, riding a special hand-pedaled bike. But his focus now is on walking. And later, running.

He tells Price he focuses on his leg "every minute …'cuz every time I take a step, you have to think of your step every time.

"Right now, I'm kinda like a baby at it, and I'm just kind of crawling, but sooner or later … I hope I'm running."

Much of Metzdorf's 's rehabilitation involves learning to balance on a new leg, one with no muscles and no feeling.

Metzdorf is driven in part by his desire to remain a soldier. He'd already been declared physically unfit to serve, a designation he rejected. He fought -- and won -- the right to remain in the army.

"I've been in the Army nine years. And there's all this experience, and knowledge, and -- and the Army needs me. And I need to stay there."

Price says Metzdorf doesn't know if he'll be asked to redeploy to Iraq, but he's willing to go if he gets the call. He also says he plans to be jumping out of a plane again, maybe as soon as next March.