The Commandant of the Marine Corps came to visit the injured Marines who are currently patients at Naval Medical Center San Diego on Sept. 15.
A brief visit was not the only event on his schedule as he arrived at NMCSD. Gen. Michael Hagee was there to reenlist Cpl. Nick Beberniss, the Marine Corps’ first Permanent Limited Duty Marine.
During a tour in Baghdad, Iraq, Beberniss, a Westminster, Co. native, served as a mortar man with 2nd Marines, 7th division. As he was setting up a vehicle check point, he was struck with an enemy double-stack anti-tank mine on July 21, 2004, which was supposed to have left him paralyzed.
“The doctors told me I would never walk again. I even thought I would never walk again,†said Beberniss.
With four broken vertebrae, Beberniss laid in a hospital bed with a collapsed spine and broken dreams. With the thought of never walking again, the Marine believed his time with the Marine Corps was over.
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