Marine Lance Cpl. David Goldich was operating the gun turret on top of a Humvee when a roadside bomb, rigged with a 155 mm artillery shell, detonated beside him.

“It knocked out our vehicle commander, blew out fuel tank, shredded our tire,” Goldich recalled about the summer night in 2006 outside of Fallujah, Iraq. The explosion caused physical damage to the serviceman, too; it punctured Goldich’s right eardrum.