News From the Cause
Navy corpsman hopes to inspire other wounded vets (SOUTH COUNTY INDEPENDENT, RI)
July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011 12:00 PM EDT
Jacob Emmott was just doing his duty.
That’s what the South Kingstown native was thinking when he was told he would be receiving the Silver Star, the third-highest award for valor in the armed forces that is presented for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.
The Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class wasn’t picturing any future military decorations on April 20, 2010, a day in a southern Afghanistan river valley where bullets fired by Taliban forces were zipping past his head. There weren’t any ceremonies on Emmott’s mind when two other members of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines were shot.
In fact, Emmott wasn’t doing much thinking at all – he was reacting. His extensive training and the experience he’d gained through a pair of combat deployments took over as he began to lend assistance, dropping his rifle and tending to the wounds suffered by his fellow soldiers. Emmott’s unit had already called for a medical support helicopter to descend into the valley before he himself fell victim to enemy fire.
“The next thing I know I’m looking up at the sky,” Emmott said. “And I’m like, ‘What the hell just happened? Why does my head hurt?’”
Emmott knows the answer to that question now. A bullet ripped through the left side of his face and exited behind his left ear, knocking him to the ground. It’s taken Emmott 14 surgeries and 15 months of rehabilitation to overcome the partial paralysis that left his mouth frozen in a sideways pose, the deafness that still prevents him from hearing out of his left ear and the gradual process of relearning how to speak in complete sentences. His voice came through loud and clear in a telephone interview on Monday night, as Emmott sounded like a 22-year-old man who was ready to resume the prime of his life.
“I’m blessed enough to be living again,” Emmott said. “To make it back as far as I have – and I still should be able to go farther, too – it really kind of blows my mind.”
July 14 was the latest milestone in Emmott’s recovery, as he traveled from his naval base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to the 3rd annual Navy Safe Harbor Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. He started to realize just how special the evening was going to be when praise from friends, family and fellow military members came rolling in on his Facebook page, via text message and through handfuls of phone calls. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the vice chief of naval operations, and the Honorable Juan Garcia, assistant secretary of the Navy, were on hand to present Emmott with an award that has been received by the likes of John McCain, Norman Schwarzkopf, John Kerry and George Marshall.
“It took a while, but eventually it sunk in,” Emmott said. Click here to view more
