We want to take a moment to thank the generous donors who’ve rallied to help wounded marine Robert Thrailkill Jr. finance a vehicle with assistive-devices, and to let others who might not have heard his story know how they can help. Thrailkill is returning to Michigan next week after two years of rehab at Bethesda after losing his legs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. Donations can be made at Borgman Ford Mazda or online at Semper Fi Fund (please be sure to specify Thrailkill’s name.) If you missed it, here’s the story from FoxNews17:
Story by Mitch Fick, FoxNews17
Robert Thrailkill, Jr. has spent the majority of the past 25 months in a rehabilitation center in Bethesda, Maryland. He remembers exactly what happened on October 26, 2010. He was serving as a Marine combat engineer in Afghanistan. He was checking buildings that day.
“I was investigating a little pile of dirt,” Robert told FOX 17 in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. ”And when I knelt down and uncovered it, I found an IED right there and then went I went to stand back up and I turned to my left, I triggered – what I believe to be – a secondary. And that’s when I got blown up.”
Robert lost both his legs in the explosion. He’s been rehabbing in the DC area ever since.
He moves back to his homestate on December 2. He’ll be joining the Grand Rapids Sled Wings, an adaptive hockey team.
But to get where he needs to go when he’s back home, Robert needs a truck.
He was back for a visit earlier this fall and stopped into Borgman Ford-Mazda in Grandville. That’s where he met sales manager Scott Gibbons. Read the rest of this entry »