Often, the stories of the men and women who are killed or injured in war are lost in a sea of statistics.
But Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard's story transcends that, touching this community and those beyond it - and despite the life-altering loss of his legs and other internal and external injuries, it has become a source of inspiration for hundreds, even thousands of people.
Andrew, who grew up in Converse Heights, last saw his home, his room, his community, during a brief trip to Spartanburg in September 2006, just before his unit deployed to Iraq. He's spent much of the last year hospitalized, in and out of the operating room, undergoing rigorous physical and occupational therapy, driven by an indomitable will to one day walk again.
Saturday, he's finally coming home
And he will be given a hero's welcome.
"Just being in a position where I am, having gone through what I've been through, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the old familiar sites. And they've certainly been playing a lot in my mind over the last year," Andrew, 24, said in a phone interview.
"I've had mixed feelings in the sense that I'm extremely excited about coming home, and I'm extremely grateful about any sort of celebration, or any opportunity to get together with the community. But at the same time, I feel very strongly that I am in no way more of a hero than anyone else who has served over there in Iraq."
Andrew is scheduled to arrive in Spartanburg around noon Saturday, at the downtown airport on a private plane courtesy of local developer George Dean Johnson. A small private gathering will be held before a motorcade, including a police escort, takes him to First Baptist Church, where he and his family are members.
"Andrew represents to us ... Not only is he a young man of great faith and courage, but his humility and his commitment to service has been part of his life since he was young," said the Rev. Seth Buckley, minister to students at First Baptist.
"This is letting him know that even in the midst of great struggle and this incredibly difficult time for him, he has inspired all of us - and we're celebrating what he has brought out in each of us: a deeper faith, a commitment to courageous living and a passion to make a difference in our community and beyond."
Converse Street between St. John and Main will be blocked off for the duration of the event, which will begin around 12:45 p.m. About 1,000 American flags will be distributed and Buckley expects the streets to be lined as the motorcade approaches. Five hundred "Welcome home, Andrew" T-shirts have been donated and will be handed out.
It will be "a massive expression of gratitude and thanksgiving for the men and women who have served our country. Andrew represents thousands of them," said the Rev. Don Wilton, pastor of First Baptist.
Parking is available at the First Baptist lot off Main Street, or in the Dunbar or Kennedy Street garages.
A stage will be set up in the church's back parking lot, across from Barnet Park. The event should last an hour. Speakers include Spartanburg Mayor Bill Barnet, U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, Wilton and, of course, Andrew.
Other dignitaries, including Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, have been invited, but their schedules had not been confirmed as of late last week.
Up to 4,000 people are expected. The event is free.
"There are many ways in which his returning offers us all a sense of introspection and thoughtful reflection of who we are and why others have given so much so we can enjoy what we're doing," Barnet said.
"We are absolutely sensitive to the fact that there are many heroes, and some of them have injuries that are less dramatic perhaps...but Andrew of course has captured the attention of many, and has come from such a challenging position to where he is today. He's had a unique set of challenges and operations, and a number of situations that if they had gone just slightly different, he may not be with us. He represents a dramatic and important example of the value of life, and the value we ought to place on life."
After months of therapy, Andrew began walking using parallel bars, and then a walker, and finally progressed to two canes recently. He believes his highest level of mobility will be to walk with one cane one day.
Abdominal surgery in August kept him out of the PT room for a couple of weeks and recovering from that surgery has kept him from practicing walking. But he wants to walk from his chair to the podium to speak Saturday.
"Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, I'll be able to do that," Andrew said. "There's certainly something to be said about kinesthetic memory, in that ... you don't forget how to kick a soccer ball if you haven't done it in a year. And it certainly is quite a bit more difficult than, say, riding a bike. You don't just hop on and go. But I've tried to stay in shape as much as I can without having my prosthetic legs with me. I'm hopefully going to be able to use them when I get back home."
Once word got out that the church was planning a homecoming, the phone started ringing, Buckley said, with folks asking how they could help.
Next Sunday, Andrew will speak at all three First Baptist services - at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. - and afterward the church will host a lunch for veterans.
The next day, Oct. 29, marks the one-year anniversary of the bomb blast that cost Andrew his legs. And the day after that he flies back to Washington to continue his rehabilitation. He hopes to grab a bite at Wade's, Ike's and Sugar'n'Spice while he's home.
But he's talking about future trips, and hopes to be able to come home for Thanksgiving, said his father, Dr. Harry Kinard.
"The church body prayed for him so much, and supported the family so much, I think Don wanted to bring him back in and say, 'Hey, he made it,'" Harry Kinard said. "We're hoping that will bring some closure, from an emotional standpoint."
Buckley believes beyond that, this homecoming will help launch Andrew into the next chapter of his life.
"There's a deep love for Andrew and his family, and in many ways we feel like this is the least we can do for what he has encouraged in all of us. And, to give him hope," Buckley said. "To visibly see the scores of people there, I think will be a mental picture for him that he'll cherish for the rest of his life, and propel him on for greater service to our community and our country.
"He's going to go far. This is just a bump in the road for Andrew. His passion to make a difference is unwavering. He will persevere and God's going to use him in a mighty way. This is, in many ways, cheering him on to that."
Kinard ready for next challenges in recovery
JASON SPENCER, Staff Writer Published April 8, 2007
The early morning explosion that hit a Marine platoon in Rawah, Iraq, five months ago left 2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard damaged but not destroyed.
The 24-year-old says he's ready to be fitted for his first prosthetic leg, that he's ready for more painful surgery and that he's ready for more adventures outside the hospital.
Andrew's ultimate goal is to be home in Spartanburg in time for Christmas - and it's a lofty goal, considering his earliest possible return so far has been forecast as early 2008.
But one thing Andrew has proven is that he's up to a challenge.
"For the most part, Marines and soldiers are motivated people. We like to work hard and push the limits of what we can do," he said.
"When doctors say, 'Hey, take it easy, you just got this leg, only walk on it for one hour today,' we'll walk eight hours and mess ourselves up." He's grinning by the time he gets to that last part. "So, it's going to be a tough trip."
Big steps, small steps The October explosion took all of Andrew's left leg, but only part of his right one.
Because he has a nub on that side of his body, doctors can better fit it with a prosthetic leg. And it gives Andrew more muscles to use to control that leg.
He hopes to have a socket and prosthetic leg attached to his right side within two weeks.
Though he'll be continuing upper-body physical therapy throughout, he'll begin learning to use that leg, and walking with it on crutches. He'll have to master that before doctors tackle the left side.
Andrew says he's ready.
Because his entire left femur was removed from his pelvis, Andrew will use mostly abdominal muscles to walk on that side. It will take "kind of a dance move" to walk using both legs, he says.
But the small steps are important, too.
Andrew seems to have more use of his hands than he did three months ago, as evidenced by his handshake. His fire-red hair was a perfect Marine cut for the recent homecoming held for the returning members of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. His scars have begun to heal. The blue specks left by shrapnel in the bomb blast have begun to fade.
The uniform is a nice touch, too.
"This is the first time I've worn these camis since I got hurt, and boy, does it feel great," Andrew said just after the homecoming. "It's a great feeling. I can't wait to put some legs down on them, too, so I can walk around in my boots. That will feel really good, too."
The most important game But Andrew's road to recovery entails more than just relearning to walk.
Because the bomb blast hit him from below, he still has unresolved urological and abdominal issues. More surgeries are ahead - and that's on top of the 42 procedures he's undergone since late October.
The blast took all of Andrew's hearing in his right ear, though he still has partial hearing in his left. He recently underwent surgery to get a new eardrum in his right ear, and that will have to heal before doctors can work on his left ear.
It's all a mix of long- and short-term goals.
"It's a game for me," Andrew said. "I sort of make them in my own head, and hope to push to meet them: 'Today in physical therapy, I want to do 15 push-ups' or, 'I want to do 30 push-ups,' or it's, 'Hey, there's a trip coming up that I want to go on. I'm going to work really hard to be healthy, and to be strong and independent for this trip.' "
And the Marines who served with him in Iraq have no doubt that he'll reach those goals.
"He's a real good man," Staff Sgt. Chris Webb said. "And if they'd let him stay back, with his prosthetics, and be my platoon commander, I'd work with him any day of the week."
Andrew's eyes light up when he talks about trips patients take from Walter Reed to go snow skiing in Aspen, Colo., or water skiing in Florida. So what if he's sitting on the skis, rather than standing? He sees that as just doing things a little differently.
"For an amputee, it's important not to look at what you lost, but what you still have," Andrew said. "I still have so much. I have a family that loves me. I'm still a Marine. And I've still got my mind. What else do I need?"
Herald-Journal
A milestone for Kinard: Trip to Lejeune to greet returning platoon
JASON SPENCER, Staff Writer Published April 8, 2007
Healing isn't just about mending physical wounds.
This month, Marine 2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard was able to take a break from the tests and the doctors and the poking and the prodding and the physical therapy and the hospital food and the hospital smell. He was able to take a breath of fresh air.
Last Sunday was important for Andrew the man; Monday, for Andrew the Marine.
It was another milestone in Andrew's life - this time an emotional milestone, not a physical one.
"This was something that was really, really on his mind a lot," said Andrew's father, Dr. Harry Kinard.
"Since he woke up in the ICU, it's been on his mind every day. Every day. Thinking about his guys. Wondering what they were up to. Hoping they were OK. So, it was important for him to get down there and see those guys in the flesh."
Andrew was in good spirits, making jokes.
The trip to Camp Lejeune, N.C., took a toll on him physically, but he didn't let it show.
'The same Marine' Since leaving CampLejeune in September, about 140 Marines in the 2nd Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion have been injured. Four have been killed.
Andrew took the first major hit of the deployment, when a bomb blast in Rawah, Iraq, cost him his legs and injured him internally.
Maj. John Polidoro, second in command of the battalion, has been tracking all the causalities, including Andrew. Sites like caringbridge.com, where Andrew's family posts a daily update on his condition, are crucial to tracking the wounded, Polidoro says, because the military is bound by federal privacy laws.
"His progress is amazing to me, because I know what he looked like and what had happened after the incident, after the attack," Polidoro said.
"We didn't believe he was going to make it. … He had lost a lot of blood. Extensive damage. And to see him and talk to him today is no different than when we were out at Twentynine Palms (Calif.) getting ready. … He's the same person, the same attitude, the same Marine."
During the triumphant exit of a beige "Wounded Warrior" minivan on April 1, Andrew was greeted by cheers and applause. He shook hands, kissed babies and thanked the Marines and soldiers who were still overseas for their service.
He had an instant connection with everyone around him.
Most people who showed up Sunday were strangers wishing to show their support, wives and girlfriends of his then-deployed fellow Marines (the 2nd LAR is an infantry unit, so it is all male), or old friends - some of whom were injured and returned to the States early and others whom he just hadn't seen in awhile. Several had new additions to their family they were happy to introduce.
Sunday was a preview of things to come: the tears, the hugs, the show of mutual respect.
The Warrior House, where Andrew stayed, was situated in a cluster of recently manicured lawns and similar but distinct homes. Andrew called it "Lieutenantsville," as the area was full of low-level officers. It has a paved driveway and a few trees in the front and back. Thanks to Hope for the Warriors, it also has a wheelchair ramp, a handicapped-accessible bathroom and other amenities.
Given the warm weather, the only thing missing was the smell of freshly cut grass or a charcoal grill.
As friends came in to greet Andrew, the American flag waving ferociously outside was reflected in the glass frame of a piece of artwork hanging in the living room.
One of those friends was Lance Cpl. James "Scott" MacKenzie.
MacKenzie was about 5 feet from Andrew when the homemade bomb went off Oct. 29.
'Something was going to come' MacKenzie, 21, looks healthy, though he can only open his jaw about 30 millimeters.
He has shrapnel in his left arm, the left side of his face, and some loss of feeling. He has surgery in May and hopes for a full recovery.
Because MacKenzie was injured, he came home early and got to reunite with Andrew a day before most of the others in his company.
"They told me when I was in the hospital … I kept asking about him," MacKenzie said. "When I actually gained consciousness, they said, 'OK, look. We've got good news. The lieutenant is on his way home.' I was like, 'He is?' And they finally told me. They had to rewind everything for me."
Like Andrew, MacKenzie doesn't remember much about the explosion.
One of Andrew's goals in traveling to CampLejeune was to fill in some of the blanks.
That started Sunday, when Andrew saw his foot locker from Iraq in the Warrior House.
In it, he found the pistol belt he was wearing the day of the explosion. It still had blood on it from his injuries. It still had dirt on it, from where his men dragged him to safety.
Andrew and a group of Marines were on patrol in Rawah, going from house to house and talking to people. Taking a census. Gathering intelligence. Keeping up to date.
The morning had been quiet so far.
Andrew had made a few jokes with his men and was showing them around town. That spot is where a group gathers to study religious texts. Over there, a young woman was shot just two weeks ago.
At one point, they were in a large, rocky open area that not many people frequented. Goat tracks were more common than footprints, and even those were scarce.
Two 120mm artillery shells were on each side of the road they were patrolling.
Andrew stepped almost directly on one of them.
The blast tore through him from below, at an angle not much body armor protects. The force shattered his pistol, which he carried on his left leg, and pushed a piece of the gun through him on a near-fatal track.
"When we got to him, and started treating his injuries, he was still doing his job," said Cpl. Joseph Cedenopereira, who was part of a patrol on the other side of the city that ran over to help when its members heard the bomb go off.
"He was like, 'Is everything set up? Is security set up?' We're like, 'We're fine. Everything's good. We got everything. Just keep talking to us.' He was going in and out of consciousness. 'Keep talking to us.' "
Training kicked in. For the Marines on the scene, they had to react first, and think about it later, Cpl. Doug Wickizer said.
Violence had lulled for a few weeks in Rawah, but an ambush was almost a sure thing, he said.
"There were things that led up to it," Wickizer said. "You knew something was going to come."
'Accomplishment' Homemade signs lined both sides of Lejeune Boulevard on the way to the base.
"Welcome home, big daddy."
"We missed you, brat."
"I love you all the way to the moon."
"It's about time!"
Kathie Nelson and her husband flew in from Portland, Ore., to see their 19-year-old son, Cameron, come home. They stopped to hang a few signs of their own - one for Cameron, and one for his buddy who didn't have any family to welcome him.
"There have been some stretches where we didn't hear from him that were a little unsettling," Nelson said. "To hear your child's voice on a regular basis is a good thing. If it wasn't for our faith, we'd probably have been in pretty rough shape."
Nearby Jacksonville, N.C., has an unflattering downtown with only a couple of new buildings and its fair share of storefront churches. Most of the guys have the same haircut. Pregnant women are everywhere. Try to find diapers in Wal-Mart, laughed one waitress, who's due in May.
Andrew first reported to CampLejeune on April 20, 2006. Except for six weeks of desert training in Twentynine Palms, he was there until the 2nd LAR deployed on Sept. 9.
Coming back, he enjoyed seeing the familiar sites. Even the warm spring weather was about the same.
Andrew was able to find the closure he was looking for.
"It's just a feeling of excitement, of accomplishment to me, because, hey, I worked hard in the hospital to get strong enough to come here," he said.
Andrew estimates he's had 42 surgeries between the time he spent first at the NationalNavalMedicalCenter in Bethesda, Md., and now at WalterReedArmyMedicalCenter in Washington, D.C. A couple of weeks before his trip, he had emergency surgery in the middle of the night for an intestinal blockage.
His family wasn't sure he would recover enough to make the homecoming at CampLejeune.
But he did.
'Thankful for their sacrifice' An anxious crowd gathered against the curb Monday, an avalanche of emotion unleashed when the buses bringing home various arms of the 2nd LAR rolled onto base.
For his returning brothers-in-arms, it was painful and wonderful at the same time to see the lieutenant, wearing his combat fatigues, greeting them at the gate.
It was like the only people who saw a wheelchair were the people who didn't know him.
Andrew didn't want Monday to be about him. Monday was about his Marines. And he was proud of them.
"Even though I was part of that unit, and even though I was an officer in the battalion, my admiration and thanks for the sacrifices that these guys were willing to make didn't stop," he said.
"Even though I was a part of it, I still felt the same as all these people here today. I'm thankful for their sacrifice."
Not surprisingly, they spoke highly of Andrew: A steadfast leader. A determined individual. An example for other Marines.
"I see him now, and I'm like, 'Wow.' He's doing fine, he has high hopes," Cedenopereira said.
"It was… It was a good feeling," MacKenzie said. "That's all I've got to say. Just to be able to see someone so uplifting, it just raises your spirit a lot, just to see the smile on his face."
Jason Spencer can be reached at 562-7214 or jason.spencer@shj.com.
But one thing Andrew has proven is that he's up to a challenge.