Amputation doesn’t stop Oklahoma man’s mission as Marine

BY DAVID ZIZZO Comments 2
Published: November 30, 2008

William Eugene "Spanky” Gibson Jr. with his new leg taken at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in the summer of 2006. Photo Provided

Master Sgt. William Eugene "Spanky” Gibson Jr. was face down on a road in Ramadi, Iraq, when he reached for more ammunition and noticed his foot was at his belly.

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Inspiring people

Other nominees listed

Marine Master Sgt. William Eugene "Spanky" Gibson Jr. is among 10 nominees for the Most Inspiring Person of the Year by Beliefnet.com, a religious online community. The other nominees:

→Boy Scouts who rescued people after a deadly Iowa tornado.

→Paul Newman, the late actor whose Hole in the Wall Gang Camps help ill children.

→Randy Pausch, the late Carnegie Mellon professor who inspired millions with his "Last Lecture."

→Dr. Halima Bashir, a Sudanese physician brutalized for condemning Darfur horrors.

→Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor a researcher who studied her own stroke as it happened.

→Christina Applegate, actress and breast cancer survivor.

→Dara Torres, the oldest Olympic diving medalist.

→Darin Headrick, superintendent who helped Greensburg, Kan., schools recover from a tornado.

→Steven Curtis Chapman, Christian music artist who lost his daughter.

Editor’s note

The Oklahoman writer David Zizzo catches up with Marine Master Sgt. William Eugene "Spanky” Gibson Jr., an Oklahoman who returned to Iraq despite combat injuries that put him into a prosthetic leg. Gibson, back in the U.S. for a new role as an adviser, is a nominee for Beliefnet.com’s Most Inspiring Person of the Year.

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"That ain’t right,” he recalled thinking.

A sniper’s bullet had shattered a kneecap, and his leg buckled upward.

"I didn’t dwell on it,” he said. "My only instinct was to return fire.”

Later, he would lose his left leg above the knee. But in less than two years, the career Marine from a line of Oklahoma military veterans would become the first full-leg amputee to return as a soldier to a war zone.

"I don’t like sitting around,” he said.

Gibson’s father, William Gibson Sr. of Pryor, who had served as an admiral’s telephone man, said his son apparently had military in his veins. When the younger Gibson was 5, he was impressed by his grandfather in uniform with "a whole chest full of ribbons.”

"My son said, ‘I’m going to be a Marine.’”

Gibson was born in Claremore and raised in Pryor. When he was 17, he told his father he had enlisted. The elder Gibson told his son: "I don’t care what you do, just so you’re good at what you do.”

Gibson’s first war experience was in 1991, reconnaissance behind enemy lines in Desert Storm. He also was among the first Marines entering Somalia. His third combat tour was in Iraq, where he led a foot patrol on house-to-house searches.

Gibson said he spotted enemy combatants, and "I was going after those guys to drop a bomb on them” when he was shot. Team members dragged him along as Gibson and the others fought their way clear.

"We just started doing what we do best, OK Corral-style in the middle of the road,” he said.

After his injury, Gibson surprised doctors with his rapid recovery. Progressing from crutches to a prosthetic leg, Gibson competed with other amputees in skiing and triathlon events.

Gibson returned to Iraq last January, coordinating bombing attacks. His final war zone tour ended in recent weeks, and Gibson, 37, is settling in as the first enlisted person to serve as a military adviser to a member of Congress, as yet unnamed.

Gibson said his injury gave him opportunities and a "new zest for life.”

"In a way, is it a good thing that happened? Yes,” he said. "It was a life change I don’t regret.”