NeighborsFriday, November 13
Meridian veteran Joe Bogart refused medical retirement after an Iraq blast blinded him and was back by 2008
The Daily Caldwell team
Veterans Day has passed, but Joe Bogart's story from Meridian is worth your time. The retired Army major was serving in Iraq in 2006 when his team, which went up and down roads looking for roadside bombs, hit a secondary device on what he said was its last scheduled mission. The blast destroyed his right eye and left him completely blind.
He was recommended for medical retirement. "I did not like that answer," Bogart said. He fought to stay in the Army, and after countless surgeries and training he was cleared to return to active service.
Bogart went from Fort Leonard Wood to a blast in Iraq
- Late 1990sJoe serves active-duty Army as a combat engineer at Fort Leonard Wood
- 2006Joe is serving in Iraq with a platoon that clears roads for bombs
- 2006A secondary device destroys his right eye and leaves him blind
Sources: KIVI-TV, Idaho Press
- Rank: retired Army major, commissioned with the Corps of Engineers
- National Guard: five years by his early 20s
- Earlier postings: Kosovo and Germany
The Idaho Press has more of the backstory: Joe and his wife, Christine, met in jail. He was a reserve deputy, she was a young state trooper, and she told him she didn't want a two-cop household.
Aug. 2008when Joe Bogart was back on the ground in Iraq after losing his sight
He had been recommended for medical retirement and refused to accept it.
Source: KIVI-TV
Sources: KIVI-TV, Idaho Press