After Losing His Legs, A Marine Stands Tall

Justin Gaertner didn’t want to return to Trinity until he could walk.

Gaertner, a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marines, was caught in an explosion on November 26, 2010, as he swept for mines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

The explosion, the third to strike his convoy, destroyed his legs. His left arm was severely injured and needed reconstructive surgery.

Gaertner, a alumni, was brought back to the U.S. but not to his home in Trinity. He was taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for surgery on his arm. He was then taken to the Malone House outpatient facility at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. to undergo rehabilitation and learn to walk on prosthetics legs.

"I didn't want to come home until I could walk and stand proud," Gaertner said. "I wanted to come home standing tall and everything because I've always been the tall guy in my family. So I wanted to come home standing tall."

On Saturday, May 14, he came back to Pasco County for the first time. He stood on what he and his brother Larry Dalla Betta Jr. called his “Bionic Legs”, and walked, taller than he had ever been, through the bar of in Trinity.  He gave hugs and handshakes to well-wishers, leaning on a black cane.

There were bikers and family. There were teenagers. There were members of the Trinity Mustangs PPAL, which has helped raise money for Gaertner’s family. There were veterans of the Marines and other branches of the military. Gaertner had met some people before. Others, he hadn’t.

“We don’t know you, but thank you,” said one woman as he stood inside the entrance to the bar.  

“You can give me a hug,” Gaertner told her child.

Gaertner spent much of the next few hours standing on his new legs greeting people, talking and watching quietly.

Gaertner, 22, flew into Tampa International Airport Saturday afternoon to find not only family but friends wearing white t-shirts with a welcome printed on them in black letters.

He got into a black Chevy Suburban stretch limousine that drove north on  the Suncoast Parkway and pulled into the parking lot of the Target on State Road 54 in Odessa. There, a motorcade with 42 motorcycles, including a trike motorcycle painted with the colors of the American flag, waited for him to look out the window and wave. The motorcade included local chapters of U.S. Military Vets Motorcycle Club, Nam Knights, AmVets Riders, Leathernecks, Enforcers, military vehicles and cars.

Gaertner said he “really didn’t get too teary-eyed,” when welcomed at the airport. That changed when his car arived at the motorcade.

“It didn’t really start to hit me until we got off the Veterans Expressway, and the motorcycles started revving their engines,” Gaertner said. “That’s when the tears started to run down my face.”

The procession followed Gaertner’s car down 54 and onto Trinity Boulevard, where well-wishers greeted Gaertner with flags and signs at intersections. Then it turned onto Seven Springs Boulevard, where it passed a crowd that included three girls with signs at the entrance to the VFW, which was lined with U.S. flags. One handwritten sign read “Thank You Justin, I’m glad you are home.” Another girl had a black sign with "The Title" a poem about Marines, in gold letters.

“By the time I got here to the VFW, I was just kind of worn out of tears,” Gaertner said. “I was just kind of dry crying.”

Recovery after War

Gaertner was on a rural road in Marja, Afghanistan when he lost his legs. Then 21, he was leading a special minesweeping team when one improvised explosive device went off underneath the convoy.  Another went off under Gaertner’s friend, who also lost his legs. And then a third flung Gaertner into the air. The day after Thanksgiving last year, Gaertner called his stepfather to say that his legs had been blown off.

Jill Dalla Betta, Gaertner’s mother, quit working as a housemaid to stay with him as he recovered in D.C. Larry Dalla Betta, Gaertner’s stepfather, stayed in Trinity to continue working at Waste Management and care for his children, Larry Jr., 12, and Nicole, 5.

The last time he saw Gaertner before Saturday was in February, when he flew up to D.C. with Larry and Nicole.

“He’s the first one to therapy and the last one to leave,” Dalla Betta said. “He’s been busting his butt to get back on his feet, and that’s what he’s done.”

Inside the entrance to the VFW bar in Trinity Saturday, Gaertner hugged Buddy Mills, who broke his neck in a car crash and now uses a motorized scooter to get around.  Gaertner used to push the shopping cart out of Publix for Mills’ wife and daughter.

An acquaintance of Gaertner’s uncle, Mills emailed Gaertner on one deployment and advised his uncle to call McDill Air base or the Red Cross after Gaertner was injured.

“He went into the service as a young kid,” Mills, 51, said. He returned to Pasco County as a man, he said.

Now, his advice to Gaertner is to surround himself with positive people.

“There’s a lot of good days ahead,” he said.

At the VFW, “Beetle”, president of U.S. Military Vets Motorcycle Club of Pasco, passed around a red donation bucket, collecting enough to buy Gaertner a lifetime membership at the post. He also gave Gaertner a ball cap reading "Semper Fi," the slogan of the Marines.

Standing Tall

Gaertner is on his third set of prosthetic legs. He’s about 6 feet or 6”1 tall now, where had been about 5”11 on his original legs. He still falls sometimes. He did so on his way to cut a cake reading “Welcome Home Justin” in red icing.

“It’s actually kind of harder being taller,” he said. “… Because the taller you are, and the bigger shoe size you are, the harder it is to walk. ... I get to be a little bit taller than some of the guys I used to be shorter than. If I can gain a couple inches, might as well cheat the system.”

Gaertner is home until the end of the month, and then he returns to D.C. for further treatment. His arm still isn’t whole, and it will probably be two years before he finishes occupational therapy.  Tendons from his right arm will be transplanted into his injured limb.

He can hold a water or a beer bottle, but he can’t tie his shoes. He taps the raw red skin of his arm sometimes when he’s in pain, his mother said, and it helps him feel better

Gaertner, whose brother David is now deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan, used to want to be an EMT-paramedic. Now, he wants to be a physical therapist.

"One of my best friends is a triple amputee. He's missing both his legs and an arm," Gaertner said. "And the day he got hit hit, I was able to go in and visit him. It was good for him to see that I'm walking and I'm standing tall, and that he'll be here in the next couple months."

Late in the party, Gaertner sat in a chair and watched local balloon artist Jimmy Leo twist creatures out of helium and latex.

“You going to make me new legs?” Gaertner asked. “I want some new legs.”

The artist obliged. And Gaertner was given a pair of inflated beige legs ending in green shoes.