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Jared Foster couldn't wait to be a Marine. He was so anxious, he graduated from Mesa High School six months early.While stationed in Japan, he felt compelled to get a tattoo. It's a giant tattoo, consisting of two angel wings perched on his shoulders, stretching down to his waist. "Just to kind of watch over me," Foster explains. "I figured that if the time did come, better have some wings on my back to get a head start."He volunteered to go to Iraq four times. Finally, on Valentine's Day 2005, he went. He was assigned to a personal security detachment, based in Fallujah. "I drove all the brass around in the Humvees, from point a to point b," Foster says. "I was pretty much their vehicle, their gunner, anywhere they went, we went."His mission was to protect the higher ups from any dangers along the way, like roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms fire. It was a dangerous job that for Foster, only lasted about 6 weeks.On March 24, 2005, he was working in Baghdad. He'd just come off what they call "fire watch", or night patrol, and was about to lay down on a cot, inside a tent, to take a nap, when he heard something go off. He thought it was a grenade."I saw smoke," he remembers. "Then I looked down because I felt something really cold, and when I lifted my hand up, it had blood all over it." He also remembers yelling and trying to stand up, but his body wouldn't let him. Within two minutes, the young Marine was unconscious.A 50-caliber rifle, sitting about five feet behind Foster, had discharged. The bullet went in through his back and out through his stomach. "I think they found the bullet about a mile and a half down the road in a dirt berm," Foster says. "They'll go the distance, 50-cals hold a lot of punch."Foster hasn't heard of any other person in the world surviving a 50-cal round. He says the Iraqis are terrified of them and that the bullets are actually meant more for heavy artillery, like armored vehicles or tanks.It would be months before Foster would understand what had happened to him. When he finally awoke from a medically-induced coma at the National Naval Medical Center , in Bethesda, Maryland, he did not recognize the faces of his parents and family members. "I do have a hard time remembering stuff, even today," says Foster.Nobody thought he would survive. "I don't blame them. I mean if I was sitting on the sidelines and I saw what happened, I wouldn't have given it a second thought that that person wouldn't have made it," he says.But he's not ok. He's lost count of how many surgeries he's endured, but guesses the number to be 45 or higher, and his list of injuries is so long he doesn't remember all of them. He lost his tailbone completely, damaged his large and small intestines, and suffered a collapsed lung. "It took a big section of my midsection out," Foster says, but somehow it missed his spine. He credits that tattoo."It missed my whole angel wings tattoo, perfect, didn't even touch 'em and I think that's a good thing because if they would have, I wouldn't have made it," he says. "My angel wings sort of saved me on that one big time."Foster's survival amazed everyone, but after that, he was told he could forget about ever walking again. He found that news unacceptable. "I wasn't going to just sit down and take it, sit in the wheelchair for the rest of my life," he says. "I was going to prove everyone wrong, and I have been, and I still am proving them wrong, by walking, and trying to live a normal life."He is walking now but he still has problems doing so and he has pain in his back and legs. "I still have nerve spasms," he says, "I get fatigued very easily." The lack of tissue, from the numerous grafts, moving skin from other parts of his body to fill the gap in his back, puts a strain on him, but Foster says he gets through it.He's bothered that the shooting was friendly fire. "If I was going over there to serve my country, if I was going to get hit, I'd rather it be by the enemy than my own guy."He admits that, at first, he had a hard time accepting what happened, but says, now, he's moved on. He considers the shooting "just a mishap. I just got dealt the cards I got dealt."He keeps in touch with the young man who accidentally shot him. "I don't have any hatred or anything towards him," Foster says, but, he admits the first conversation was tough."I think he needed to hear that I wasn't upset with him, that I forgave him for what happened. I think he needed to hear that just as much as I needed to hear his side of the story."He also still talks to the guys from his platoon, their conversations sporadic, because they're back in Iraq again. For the 23-year-old who thought he'd make a career of the Marines, serving at least 20 years, it's hard to not be a part of it. Now, he's trying to decide what to do next.He's thinking about college, possibly ASU. He's interested in a degree in criminal justice and eventually working for the FBI.In the meantime, he keeps busy with his hobby, restoring a 1968 Camaro Super Sport. "She is my baby," he says. "You may see just a rusted old vehicle but I see a couple months down the road, what she could be."He knows it'll be a couple of years before she's up and running and fully restored and he sees the parallels with his own recovery. "She needs a lot of love and attention like I did. I'm going to give it to her. It'll be worth it in the end."And, he can add it to an important list, the one of things no one but Jared knew he would do. "I'll feel like I did something, while they told me I'd never be able to walk, do normal things. Once I get this car done, I'll be able to show them that 'hey I did do something that you said I couldn't do."When asked about his service and what he'd like his community to know. He says, "They should just know that I served my country willingly, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, if I had a chance to go over there I would."But this young man who says "I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be walking," prefers not to look back, but to look forward. He pictures himself, maybe a year from now, cruising in his muscle car, painted in the shade of midnight blue, with white racing stripes. "I'll be sitting in my garage wiping it down every night before I go to bed once I get it done.And he'll be searching for an answer. "I don't know exactly why I'm here yet," Foster says, "But I know there's a plan, I'm just walking down the line until I get to it."