A fresh new voice!

First National Guard Green Beret Successfully Jumps With Prothetic

August 6, 2010

GRENADA. - Faced with a long recovery and the reality that he might not ever run, surf or return to his Special Forces team, Staff Sgt. Andre Murnane made the decision last year to have his right leg amputated below the knee after it was shattered by an improvised explosive device that detonated in eastern Afghanistan.

"My dreams and ambitions didn't end that day. It simply started a new chapter," he said.

And a new breakthrough.

Murnane, 28, of Salisbury, Md., entered Green Beret lore this month when he became the first Army National Guard Special Forces soldier to jump out of an aircraft. Army doctors cleared him to jump in June. While several Special Forces soldiers with prosthetics have completed airborne operations, Murnane is the first National Guardsman to do so.

Murnane admitted he felt nervous about the historic jump that took place Aug. 1 in Grenada, about 90 miles north of Jackson. And he was a bit worried about the prosthetic shifting from the opening shock of the parachute and how it would hold up when he landed.

"It held just fine with new prosthetic technology and some good old fashion duct tape," he said. "Once I was under canopy my thoughts shifted to the two runways that were on the drop zone, I barely cleared one of them by 15 or 20 meters.  Just before landing I wondered what it was going to feel like, but I just kept telling myself, feet and knees together and relax."

Last October, the communications sergeant from the Maryland-based Bravo Company of 2nd Battalion 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was out on a combat operation on a mountain when a pressure plate IED detonated while clearing an area after his team was ambushed. He was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, where he underwent several surgeries to repair his right foot and ankle. It was there where he realized the surgeries would never completely restore his leg.

He's taken it all in stride, though.

"Life is a journey, and the journey is the destination.  You have to accept change in your life and continue to live it like you did before," he said. "It takes some extra work, but if you train hard and stay motivated you can do anything you want to."