Sgt. Franz Walkup, of Tennessee, was shot five times in an ambush in Afghanistan, went through 78 surgeries and was awarded a Purple Heart. Yet, five non-profit aid organizations have apparently determined he was not disabled enough to qualify for financial aid to build the wheelchair-accessible home he needs. In an interview with WUSA, Walkup shared his frustration:
It’s hard because it kind of feels like, my sacrifice wasn’t great enough.
Sgt. Walkup’s ordeal started on September 29, 2012. The fire support specialist with 2/503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne was on patrol his unit to an Afghan National Army checkpoint in the Tangi Valley. Then Afghan soldiers they had been training turned on them and opened fire. Walkup was hit five times — four in the lower stomach, including a ricochet round to his left leg — and once in the back.
The injuries were devastating: a shattered pelvis, damaged spleen and large intestine, as well as a loss of all function in his right leg below the knee. Sgt. Walkup spent the next six months getting treatment and recuperating at the Walter Reed Medical Center, where he had to learn how to walk on crutches and to sit up on his own. Finally, having survived dozens of surgeries and a dangerous infection, Franz Walkup was released from the hospital in early 2013.
With his wife Shannon, Franz began adjusting to a life that would require special accommodations to enable him to get around. The couple proceeded to apply for financial assistance needed to build a handicapped-accessible home in Woodbury, Tennessee, but at least five non-profit groups have turned them down. (Scroll down for the video.)
1. Sgt Franz Walkup, a fire support specialist with 2/503rd infantry, 173rd airborne, was critically wounded in an ambush at a checkpoint in Afghanistan in September 2012.
2. Franz, in the hospital with his wife, Shannon.
3. He suffered a shattered pelvis, damaged spleen and large intestine, and loss of all function in his right leg below the knee.
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