He is missing one eye, the roof of his mouth and can barely eat or drink - but America's 'most injured soldier' is going back to war



America’s most wounded soldier to return to combat is going back to the front line to serve his country once more.

Captain D.J. Skelton will take charge of 192 men from his previous unit and fight in the dangerous plains of Southern Afghanistan.

Friends said his achievement should have been physically impossible but he pushed through the pain because of his ‘warrior spirit’.

Resilient: Capt D.J. Skelton (left) with his first sergeant, Sgt 1st Class James O. Bishop. Skelton was seriously wounded in Iraq and chose to stay on active duty

The inspirational story marks the end of a seven-year nightmare after Capt Skelton, 33, was blown up by rocket-propelled grenades in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004.

All he remembers is ‘screaming the whole time’ and ‘wanting to die’ then waking up at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C.

His injuries were horrific. Shrapnel had gone through his right cheek and torn apart his jaw and the roof of his mouth.

He had also been shot in the chest and had a ‘shrapnel tunnel’ through his body.

It has taken six years and more than 60 surgeries for him to recover but he still has a missing left eye, only has partial use of his left arm and limited use of his left ankle.

The roof of his mouth has gone and he cannot eat or drink without a custom prosthetic.

A life-long rock climber, Skelton re-learned how to climb after combat injuries shattered his left arm. He has since hosted a rock-climbing clinic for other amputees

For a lesser soldier it would have defeated him, but not Capt Skelton.

‘I wanted to return to my men,’ he told ABC News.

‘The fact is they never quit on me, and I wasn't going to give up my fight and quit.’

In an inspiring twist, he set about using his time in recovery to study and better himself.

He has taught himself Chinese Mandarin at a language school, graduated from West Point military academy in New York where he allegedly illegally jumped off a 900-ft high bridge in a daredevil stunt.

His other achievements include completing 465 gruelling hours of ‘punishment tours’, which is one hour of waling back and forth with a rifle, and personally body-piercing the entire women's soccer team.

‘The body is resilient. The body is amazing,’ Capt Skelton said.

‘I can't control what happens to my body or how my body heals.

He was injured in Fallujah in 2004 by a grenade. Here is file photo from the Iraqi city also in 2004

Mentally? That's a different story.

‘I can either dwell on what happened and be miserable and pissy and complain or I can look at what I do have left and figure out how to make the most of my new life... how to make what I have work while always looking for creative ways to make up the difference.’

Retired Army officer Lieutenant General John Nagl, a friend of Capt Skelton, said what he had accomplished should have been ‘physically incapable for him’.

‘Certain things are tough for him to do. The rifle is tough. He's good with a pistol. In some cases, it's good to have a company commander behind a rifle, but he makes up for it in other ways.

‘I have no doubt that he will succeed’.

Capt Skelton is due to rejoin the 2nd Stryker Cavalry in the coming months.

He is among the more than 40,000 soldiers who have been wounded since 2001. Of those and more than 1,600 have undergone amputations.

General Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, said:

‘Capt Skelton is providing a great example of courage, strength and commitment.

‘Although his body was wounded, his warrior spirit was not’.