SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A 2010 roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan that tore apart Andrew Brown's leg turned out to be a blessing.
The 28-year-old ex-Marine, who was awarded a Purple Heart, says the two years he spent recuperating led him to Upstate Medical University where he's studying to be a radiation therapist.
"It's amazing the path I've been put on," says Brown, who recently won a scholarship for his academic and leadership achievements from the alumni association of Upstate's College of Health Professions.
Brown grew up in the small Madison County hamlet of Sheds. He enlisted in the military right out of high school. College did not interest him. Brown was gung-ho to join the Marines, in part, because he loved the uniform and wanted to serve in Iraq. Becoming a health professional was not on his radar.
Leg crushed by 25,000 pound truck
The machine gunner went through 13 operations, plus bone and skin grafts, and a lot of physical therapy after he was thrown from a military all-terrain vehicle truck in the explosion. A broken truck door landed on Brown's left leg. The 25,000-pound truck then toppled onto the door and crushed his leg, breaking Brown's leg bones beneath the knee and his heel bone.
Brown was lucky doctors could save his leg. "I have a lot of buddies who are double amputees from roadside bombs," he says.
Brown can still walk and run, but not as well or as far as he used to.
To stay in shape, he goes to the gym nearly every day to lift weights. He also rides a bike.
His leg hurts after he stands a long time. He also gets ankle pain. But he's stoic when it comes to pain because of his Marine mentality and the way he was raised, said his wife, Erin Brown.
"His parents instilled in him growing up, 'Don't complain. Be grateful for what you have,'" she says.
A desire to help people in 'vulnerable states'
Joan O'Brien, who chairs the radiation therapy department at Upstate, says adversity has made Brown more compassionate. "He wants to make a difference in people's lives, just like the people who took care of him," she says.
Radiation therapists treat cancer patients. They operate machines that deliver radiation to shrink or kill cancer cells. Brown will graduate from the two-year program with a bachelor's degree in radiation therapy in 2017.
"It's a chance to help people who are in vulnerable states," he says.
Brown is the oldest of six boys. His father, Frank, works for Mabie Brothers, a Massey Ferguson dealer in Kirkville. His mother, Vanessa, is a doula, someone who helps women before, during and after childbirth. She homeschooled her children.
Brown and his brothers worked from an early age, shoveling neighbors' driveways and roofs and mowing lawns.
"Book learning is good, but so is teaching your children a work ethic," Vanessa Brown says.
Brown, who is 6-foot-4, played center for the New Life Christian School in Randallsville, which allowed homeschoolers to play on its basketball team. At age 17, he realized he'd never make it to the NBA so he set his sights on the Marines.
He doesn't remember explosion
He enlisted at age 18. Instead of Iraq, he was sent to Afghanistan.
He was injured on April 2, 2010, in Marjah, a Taliban stronghold, after his truck drove over a hidden bomb made with 150 pounds of homemade explosives.
Brown has no memory of the explosion. He was dug out of the rubble and woke up six hours later in a hospital. His first memory is of someone telling him he would keep his leg. His goal was to get better so he could return to duty.
Vanessa Brown was visiting friends in West Virginia when she got the telephone call. "Mom, I got blown up," Andrew told her. "I'm coming home."
She and her husband didn't know the extent of their son's injuries. The military flew them to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to see their then-21-year-old son.
Her voice cracks when she recalls the first time she saw Andrew in his hospital room.
"As a momma, your heart breaks, and you cry," she says. "But I was just thanking God for bringing home my boy. Whatever happened, he was alive."
An 'angry young man' in the hospital
She stayed at her son's bedside for a month. Her husband and sons came on weekends.
Brown had to wear a frame that looked like an erector set around his leg for 11 months. The device was attached to his bones with rods. He had to stay off the leg for seven months.
"He was a very angry young man," Vanessa Brown says. "One minute you are on the battlefield doing your job and the next minute you're home."
Being incapacitated frustrated Andrew, who was used to being active. "I was in a wheelchair and on crutches," he says. "People everywhere would ask you what happened. I hated it."
His injured leg turned purple as he relearned how to walk.
Andrew had to take hydrocodone, a prescription opioid, for pain, but was worried about getting hooked, according to his mother. He sometimes waited too long to take the pills, then weaned himself off of them entirely.
"I saw other young men who had given up and were content to play video games all day and take the pain pills," she says.
After about six months Brown realized he would not be able to return to duty. "He had to come to terms with that, and it was difficult," his mother says.
Did not want military desk job
He shelved his dream of being a career Marine. "I couldn't keep doing what I had been doing and I didn't want a desk job in the military," he says.
He has no regrets about his military experience. "It made me grow up real quick," he says. "I made some of the best friends you could ever ask for."
Two of his buddies died in Afghanistan. Another four died after coming home, three in accidents and one from suicide.
The Marines discharged Brown in 2012 after he completed his operations. He moved back to New York, got an apartment in Chittenango with some friends and started taking classes at SUNY Morrisville on the G.I. Bill.
He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.
A bumpy transition to civilian life
"I certainly was pretty depressed right after I got out," Andrew says. "I probably was drinking more than I should have been."
Then he met his future wife, Erin Rutkowski, on March 17, 2013, at a bar in downtown Syracuse. It was St. Patrick's Day and people at the bar were dressed in green.
"It was random," Erin says. "He came over and talked to me. We had good conversation."
They started calling and texting each other. Three months later, they began talking about getting married. They tied the knot in August 2014 in a ceremony at the Turning Stone resort, and now they live in Baldwinsville.
"She was a good influence on me that made me want to be better and pursue a career," Andrew says.
'Quiet faith' helped him get back on track
Erin says Andrew's "quiet faith" helped him navigate the transition back to civilian life.
"He believes in God. He believes there's a purpose, and he trusts in that," she says.
Brown took a human anatomy class at Morrisville. He liked it and did well. That class got him thinking about entering a health profession.
"He always loved the sciences and after he got hurt, it just clicked," his mother says. "I don't know if he would have been open to that if he hadn't been hurt. It was a curve in his life."
Radiation therapy intrigued him because it involves using high-tech equipment and a lot of interaction with patients. "Because they often come for radiation therapy for eight weeks, you really get to know them," he says.
Brown attended an open house at Upstate to learn about its radiation therapy program. Before Upstate would accept him, Brown had to spend a semester at Onondaga Community College completing prerequisite courses.
A big brother to other students
At Upstate he studies hard, is a big brother figure to other students, does well in clinical rotations and is quick to volunteer, according to O'Brien.
"He's giving of himself to others," O'Brien says. "That's what we need in this field ... students who will go out there and make a difference for cancer patients and their families."
If he hadn't been injured, Brown says he probably would have reenlisted in the Marines. "If you told me at age 15 or 16 this is what I'm going to be doing, I wouldn't have believed you."
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