Heroes Among Us

In 1997, Tony Cox thought the National Guard would be the perfect choice to help him fulfill two of his goals: going to college and having time with family. He liked the idea of serving one weekend a month and two weeks per year, instead of three to four years without a break. Then the World Trade Centers were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and everything changed. Tony jokes that he joined for college money and stayed because of 9/11.

Although his goal was to make it to 20 years of service, Tony was medically retired last year after 18 years in the National Guard. The first 10 years he served with the 1249th engineer battalion, then the next eight years as an Infantryman 11B with 3-116th armored cavalry as a Staff Sergeant.

Tony shared that one of the “feathers in his cap” was the time he spent as a combat engineer and Afghan military adviser in 2006-2007.

“I helped get the first Afghan engineering company trained for de-mining,” he said. “If they went into combat operations I was with them, if they were doing training we would do training with them. Wherever they went I went.”

There are 10 million landmines in Afghanistan, left over from the Russians. Tony said there were many areas they knew to stay away from, and the locals were usually the best source of information for determining where the mines were located.

“They would tell you ‘Don’t walk up that hill right there, there’s mines,’” he recalled.

Even in Bagram, the largest U.S. Military base in Afghanistan, the danger was real.

“You’d come in the main gate, and not even 100 meters inside there were areas fenced off because of mines,” Tony remembered.

Midway through his service as combat engineer, he was moved from the Afghan engineers to serve with an infantry company. It was during this time that he got in quite a few fire fights.

“In Afghanistan there was a point for about six months where we were getting fired at every two to three days.”

Even though he was stationed in one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan, Tony received his injury in Iraq, where he was stationed in 2010-2011.

On Jan. 4, 2011, a powerful laser light suddenly struck Tony directly in the eye. The truck he and two other men were riding in was being laser marked. A few minutes later, an IED exploded and left all three men with brain injuries.

Tony said he’s had some form of a headache nonstop for the past five years, along with migraines two to three times a week. He also suffers from tinnitus and night blindness due to damage from the laser.

“I have PTSD, memory issues, you can have a conversation with me and five minutes later I won’t remember. Drives her crazy,” Tony said as he nodded toward his wife, Christa.

Christa smiled and was quick to add her thoughts.

“The thing we joke about is that if I ask if I can do something, I’ll just ask him again later until I get the answer I want, because he won’t remember the conversation,” she said.

Tony also has issues with his feet, knees, hips and back.

“I’m falling apart,” he said with a laugh.

Additionally, Tony suffers with digestive issues as a result of being exposed to toxic chemicals while enlisted.

There are also times when Tony will ‘blank out’ with an Absent Seizure. He describes it as waking up and not being aware that any time had passed, but suddenly his food is cold, or the movie he was watching is over.

Christa shared that these episodes are very common after brain injuries, and that because of potential dangers such as leaving the stove on, Tony can’t cook unsupervised or be left alone with their young children.

Since Tony returned home with his injuries, Christa has become active with the Hidden Heroes campaign, and she is the Elizabeth Dole Fellow for the state of Oregon. Her most recent project involves working with local mayors to create Hidden Hero Cities. This would expand help for veterans into rural areas as well as include resources for their caregivers.

“If the caregivers are being taken care of, then the veterans will definitely be taken care of,” Christa explained.

Tony pointed out that the current veteran’s benefits system is set up so veterans have to fight for everything they get. The frustration of dealing with all the red tape leads many veterans to simply give up, he explained.

“If they don’t have a good support system, or a caregiver who knows how to work the system for them, they don’t get their benefits,” Christa said. “They just give up on it, or they take a bullet.”

Christa struggled with her emotions while noting that an average of 22 veterans take their own lives every day.

Hidden Heroes aims to help caregivers to connect and to find support programs and resources to help them care for injured veterans.

“If you have caregivers who understand the system, know how to advocate for their veterans, it’s going to save the taxpayer and the VA a lot of money,” Christa explained. “When we were in DC they said it saves about 68 billion dollars having the caregivers advocate for our veterans. If I wasn’t here, they’d have to pay someone to take care of Tony.”

Tony still has a piece of the shrapnel that almost killed him, he keeps it along with his awards: a Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He described infantrymen as, “Guys that go take the ground — the guys that go find the bad guys and deal with them accordingly.”

Tony has dedicated years of his life to this calling. His service, along with the years Christa has spent helping veterans across the country, makes them both local heroes.