Injured Iraq war vet inspires Giants

Bob Glauber

January 29, 2008

PHOENIX

May 7, 2007, Baghdad: Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson is driving back from a memorial service honoring two American soldiers killed by a roadside bomb. Shortly after 9:30 p.m., he notices the flash of light just outside his vehicle. Then he hears the sound.

He knows what is about to happen next.

Seconds after the blast, he is thrown from his vehicle and lay on the ground. He is surprised that there is no pain. He quickly loses consciousness.

Three days later, as close friend and former Army football teammate Will Huff holds Gadson's hand on the airlift to a military base in Landstuhl, Germany, the words Gadson had told Huff keep coming back.

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"What I'm doing might get me killed or maimed some day," Huff remembers Gadson telling him. "But it's the only way we're going to win this war."

Huff quietly wept as he sat beside the unresponsive Gadson.

Feb. 3, 2008: As the Giants line up against the Patriots for Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, Gadson will be on the sideline, watching the game from his wheelchair, a million thoughts and emotions racing through his mind as he ponders his unlikely journey: from being minutes away from dying in the streets of Baghdad to one of the greatest sports spectacles on Earth. And why he has somehow come to serve as an inspiration for the Giants on their improbable run to the Super Bowl.

It will be exactly a year to the date Gadson left for Iraq.

"You think about the fact that you might not come back," Gadson said. "You certainly don't think, 'Will I come back with no legs?' It's not anything I could have comprehended."

Life changed in a flash

May 7, 2007. His life had changed forever.

"We're coming back from the service, and I'm thinking about these two young men who won't live their lives," he said. "You think about all the lives that will be affected because they're gone.

"Then I saw the flash, it was instantaneous out of the corner of my eye. We have a noise canceling intercom system with our vehicles, but the explosion was very loud and still, there was a very sharp 'pop.' I knew exactly what it was ...

"I remember being angry and pissed off, because I knew we'd been hit. It's like that scene on the beach in 'Saving Private Ryan,' where there's that explosion and things slow down. That's just what it was like. A thousand thoughts go through your mind, and it's like time slows down ...

"I'm laying on the ground, thinking, 'I don't have my rifle with me.' But I wasn't in pain and I didn't realize I had any leg injuries. On a subconscious level, though, I must have known I wasn't in good shape, because I remember thinking, 'I don't want to die.'"

He came very close. He was evacuated within 45 minutes by helicopter to a hospital in the Green Zone, and doctors needed 70 pints of blood to save his life. The injuries to both legs were severe, though. Both had to be amputated.

Meets with team

Sept. 22, 2007: It is the night before the Giants play the Redskins at FedEx Field, and Giants coach Tom Coughlin is speaking to his players about the importance of the game. The Giants were 0-2 and had given up a combined 80 points in losses to Dallas and Green Bay. Coughlin stops talking and announces to his players that he has asked Lt. Col. Gadson to address the team.

Gadson rolls his wheelchair to the front of the meeting room. The players fall silent.

"I remember that meeting like it was yesterday," Giants guard Rich Seubert said. "He talked about the importance of sticking together as a team, that you're going to have some tough times, but you have to just battle your way through it. He talked about fighting for every yard."