Soldier welcomed home after losing limbs

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jul/04/travis-story-a-soldiers-perseverance/



Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills plays with his daughter Chloe in his boyhood home in Vassar, Mich.

Soldier welcomed home after losing limbs
By Mark Walker
3 p.m .July 4, 2014Updated3:41 p.m.

Travis Mills came home from the war in Afghanistan changed in body but not in spirit.

“It was just a rough day at work when I took a wrong step and lost my arms and legs,” the 27-year-old said of what happened on his third combat deployment to the battlefields of the nation’s longest war. “A lot of my friends didn’t make it home at all, so how lucky am I?”

The former community college football national champion fullback and retired Army staff sergeant arrives in San Diego this weekend in advance of Tuesday’s red-carpet screening of “Travis: A Soldier’s Story,” a documentary that brings to life the daily struggles America’s wounded veterans face.

Mills is one of just five surviving quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 82nd Airborne Division infantryman now travels the country telling his story and how he strives to remain upbeat despite significant challenges.




Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills is shown with his wife Kelsey and 1-year-old daughter, Chloe, in Vassar, Mich., Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. Mills is visiting his hometown for the first time since losing all four limbs while fighting in Afghanistan. Mills, his wife, Kelsey, and their 1-year-old daughter, Chloe, will be the grand marshals of Vassar High School's homecoming parade on Thursday evening.