11/24/2022
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! praying everyone has a blessed day!
True Heritage
- Home
- United States
- Harlem, GA
- True Heritage
True Heritage is a nonprofit located in Georgia
Address
Harlem, GA
30814
Telephone
Website
Alerts
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when True Heritage posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Organization
Send a message to True Heritage:
Share
Category
The New Beginning
My name is Retired Sergeant Darryl Wallace. I grew up and went to Thomson High School where I graduated and met the love of my life Tiffany Wallace. We have been together 16 years and married for 14 years. We share our son Chase Wallace who is 14 and our newborn baby girl Cloey Wallace who was just born during Veteran’s Month. I joined the military to have discipline in my life, along with some sort of stability in mine and Tiffany’s life. So, I took off to Fort Benning, GA in September of 2005. I went in as a light infantryman paratrooper. I had to be part of the best! After going through basic and AIT I went on through jump school. After graduation I was sent to Fort Bragg, NC for my first and only duty station. I was attached to the 1/508th 4th BCT 82nd Airborne Division.
From there I went to Bravo Company 2nd platoon, where I was the AB for weapons squad and also designated marksman for our platoon. We trained hard, day and night, for our upcoming deployment to Afghanistan that was coming up in January of 2007. When that day arrived it was hard to leave my wife and son behind. But, I knew I had a mission and I was determined to carry it out. With my brothers in arms by my side we carried out mission after mission. Until one day my life would change forever.
On June 9, 2007 my humvee struck a massive Improvised Explosive Device or IED. It consisted of four anti-tank mines, stacked one on top of the other. The blast went off right up under my seat. I was the driver, so it exploded, taking the whole front of the humvee off, along with both of my legs. I was found about 30 meters away from the humvee by my medic Matt Spaulding. I was dead when he arrived after losing all my blood but a pint. After reviving me and getting me on a medevac they were able to find out closely the extent of my injuries. I had lost both my legs, broke my lower back, my sacrum, broke my left arm severely, crushed the right side of my face, and suffered from a traumatic brain injury. I died a total of four times that day before getting on a plane to Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital.
I spent nine grueling months there trying to learn how to walk on prosthetics, but the worst part of it all was dealing with the pain from everything I had just been through, both physically and mentally. After many months of therapy I medically retired here back home at Fort Gordon and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for my injuries and actions in combat. Afterwards we had a nonprofit, Homes For Our Troops, build us our home that we still reside in till this day. But I still continued to struggle within myself. I couldn’t accept myself and who I was. I tried su***de, drinking, drugging, every way possible to try and escape the thoughts of war and the things that I was going through.
