Sgt. Orlando Gill of Queens has a lot to be thankful for this year.
He’s thankful for family, and friends – and, even after his leg was blown off, thankful he’ll be able to continue to fight for America.
And he’s thankful for his new prosthetic leg that replaces the one ripped from his body just eight weeks ago.
“It’s great I got my leg,” Gill said at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. “I’m thankful I’m alive.”
Life, as he once knew it, ended in a puff of smoke on Oct. 2, 2004.
Gill’s 2nd Infantry Division was in Ramadi on an “IED denial mission” – Army jargon for searching for roadside bombs – when an insurgent stepped from behind a berm and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at him.
“I saw that circle of smoke that comes with it,” said Gill, 31.
“It happened so fast. The round hit me directly on the right leg. Tore it right off.
“But I thank God [the grenade] didn’t detonate. It kept right on going and blew up when it hit the road behind me.”
On his back and with the leg below his knee gone, Gill’s only thought – besides not “bleeding out” – was getting that guerrilla. He popped off a couple of rounds from his M-4 rifle, wounding the fleeing enemy. Buddies finished him off.
“He might have taken my leg, but he wasn’t going to hurt anybody else,” said the soldier, who has re-enlisted four times and who’s determined to be a lifer.
Gill then started an arduous road to recovery. Last week he got his prosthetic leg – a multi-axial training leg. The bouncier Renegade model will come by Christmas.
“It feels different – way, way different from the original,” joked Gill as a technician finished the initial fitting. “It was my bad knee, anyway. I always had a ‘gangster lean’ hitch in that leg.”
After final adjustments, Gill and his five pounds of stainless steel set off on their inaugural march.
It soon became a victory lap as he stopped at various wards to visit his mates. When Gill came upon a nursing station, he reared back and kicked up his gleaming limb, plunking it down on the counter like some cowboy slapping two bits on a saloon bar.
After making the rounds, Gill retired to the computer room for his daily routine of sending e-mails to Iraq, “I think about those guys every freakin’ day,” he added.
Not that he’s finished with the Army. Gill said the 2nd Infantry would find a position for him.
“I’m doing the 20 [years],” said Gill. “I won’t be able to be a combat soldier but I’ll still be a soldier.”
A hint of survivor’s guilt then seeped out.
“But I feel bad: Eight days after my incident, the soldier who took my spot was killed,” he noted. “A sniper got him. The fact my soldier died doing my job kills me every night.”
Gill always wanted to be a soldier. His 12-year career has taken him to Kosovo, Korea and two tours in Iraq.
Gill slipped into town recently to surprise his mom, Primavera Chivetta of Flushing, on her 54th birthday along with his sisters, Indira Young, 33, and Maria Munroe, 19.
Munroe said the family is also thankful for this holiday season.
“We’re thankful he’s alive and he’s with us,” she said. “And that he’s doing good.”