U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, 24, is back home in California this Independence Day weekend, returning for the first time since he was critically injured in the line of duty. “It’s pretty surreal. Having my friends around makes it feel a little more normal,” he said. “I haven’t been home in a year and a half, a little over a year and a half.”Vargas-Andrews was one of 18 service members wounded in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Thirteen service members were killed in that blast.Vargas-Andrews lost his right arm and his left leg and had to go through 43 surgeries. One of his surgeons said he survived against all odds.”He just started crying and said something along the lines of basically, ‘You shouldn’t be alive,'” Vargas-Andrews said.The veteran arrived at the Sacramento International Airport on Friday to a crowd of people cheering for him, including friends and family.He said he is grateful for the outpouring of support, and he is already looking ahead to what is next for him.”I’m alive today. I don’t have an excuse not to be successful in my life, and I’m missing half my organs and half my limbs, and I hope I can show people there’s no reason not to be successful in your own life. No reason not to do the things you want to do,” Vargas-Andrews said. He believes his love for weightlifting and dedication to fitness is what helped save his life, ensuring he was healthy and strong enough to survive the bombing. Moving forward, he hopes to own his own gym one day to share that passion.”I’m gonna make an adaptive gym at some point in the future. That’s important to me to be able to give back to my community as well,” Vargas-Andrews said.Watch the video above for the full story.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, 24, is back home in California this Independence Day weekend, returning for the first time since he was critically injured in the line of duty.
“It’s pretty surreal. Having my friends around makes it feel a little more normal,” he said. “I haven’t been home in a year and a half, a little over a year and a half.”
Vargas-Andrews was one of 18 service members wounded in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Thirteen service members were killed in that blast.
Vargas-Andrews lost his right arm and his left leg and had to go through 43 surgeries. One of his surgeons said he survived against all odds.
“He just started crying and said something along the lines of basically, ‘You shouldn’t be alive,'” Vargas-Andrews said.
The veteran arrived at the Sacramento International Airport on Friday to a crowd of people cheering for him, including friends and family.
He said he is grateful for the outpouring of support, and he is already looking ahead to what is next for him.
“I’m alive today. I don’t have an excuse not to be successful in my life, and I’m missing half my organs and half my limbs, and I hope I can show people there’s no reason not to be successful in your own life. No reason not to do the things you want to do,” Vargas-Andrews said.
He believes his love for weightlifting and dedication to fitness is what helped save his life, ensuring he was healthy and strong enough to survive the bombing. Moving forward, he hopes to own his own gym one day to share that passion.
“I’m gonna make an adaptive gym at some point in the future. That’s important to me to be able to give back to my community as well,” Vargas-Andrews said.
Watch the video above for the full story.
