Golden Hour
Captain Charles G. Grow, USMC (Ret)
Acquisition Number: 2015.187.1
Medium: Oil on Canvas

Lieutenant Colonel Ben “Ty” Edwards stands in his articulating wheelchair at James Haley VA Medical Center, Tampa, Florida. Ty was shot in the head while on patrol as an Embedded Training Team lead in Afghanistan in 2008. The AK-47 round pierced his Kevlar helmet, ricocheted off the top of his forehead and embedded in his helmet. Thanks to the quick actions of those around him, the advances in battlefield medicine, and the availability of casualty evacuation support, he continues to rehabilitate from a wound that would have likely killed him just a decade earlier. Many seriously wounded Marines face months, if not years, of follow-up surgeries, rehabilitation, and healing of wounds that are not always evident. In 2007 in response to the growing numbers of wounded Marines returning home, the Marine Corps established the Wounded Warrior Regiment to provide added non-medical care to the wounded, ill, and injured and their families. Recovery and transition back to their units or to civilian life is the full-time job of these warriors.