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Meet Adaptive Athlete: Bobby Aiken

 

Bobby Aiken, USMC, Ret.

DOB: May 25th, 1975

DOI: April 2004

PATHOLOGY: Limb Salvage for Gunshot Wounds

Bobby

 In 2000, Bobby was a Senior at the University of Texas in Austin studying fine arts when he decided to join the Marine Corps as a performance art piece(initially). Bobby’s father had been a combat engineer for 21 years so when 9/11 happened, Bobby requested to be transferred to first combat engineer battalion after being stationed in Japan for a year. 

 

Bobby was deployed during the invasion in 2003 in a scout reconnaissance team for his first tour. On his second tour in February 2004, Bobby, now with 2nd battalion 4th Marines, deployed to Ramadi, Iraq to where the fighting got exponentially violent. They lost 33 marines and out of the entire battalion, 1 out of every 4 guys ended their service with purple hearts.

 

On a Quick Reaction Force(QRF) mission, surrounded by the enemy, Bobby was hit by two rounds from rooftop fire. One of those rounds went through his foot, almost causing him to loose the foot, and the other through his leg. Bobby didn’t even realize he had been hit in the leg until they made it back to base. The doctors were able to save his foot and Bobby has been going through limb salvage ever since the incident. 

 

Bobby did not want to leave his Marines but his fighting days were over. Since then he has done a little military contracting work, but his new passion is using his art degree to tell his story and help heal the scars through comedy.