When Colin Powell passed away a couple of days ago, we decided to do a bit of research about his advocacy on behalf of wounded warriors, including men and women who lost limbs while serving the nation. In the course of that reading, we came across a fairly recent (2019) article describing Powell’s chance encounter with an amputee serviceman named Anthony Maggert during a roadside flat-tire change on a chilly January day. Powell, who wrote about the incident on his Facebook page, picks up the narrative:
“I am a car guy and knew I could change [the tire], but it was cold outside and the lug bolts were very tight. I jacked the car up and got several of the bolts removed when a car suddenly pulled up in front of me. As the man got out of his car, I could see that he had an artificial leg. . . . I learned that he lost his leg in Afghanistan.”
Maggert finished the tire change for the 80something Powell, who concluded his Facebook post this way: “Thanks, Anthony. You touched my soul and reminded me about what this country is all about and why it is so great. Let’s stop screaming at each other. Let’s just take care of each other. You made my day.”
RIP, General Powell. The world needs more people like you—and more like Anthony, too.
Elsewhere in the headlines:
The latest amputee to star in a TV series, Alaqua Cox, is hearing-impaired in addition to being limb-different. The 24-year-old Native American actress is cast opposite Jeremy Renner in the upcoming Disney+ series Hawkeye.
Self-doubt can get to the best of us, even a Paralympic mega-medalist like Jessica Long. Her training for Tokyo, she says, “was also about learning to love myself.”
University of Utah researchers have developed a robotic exoskeleton for above-knee amputees that significantly improves walking gait.
Amputee veteran Peter Keating took third place in the Boston Marathon’s adaptive division last week. The 2021 race marked the first time the Boston Marathon had a separate division for adaptive runners.
One of the surprise stars of Shanghai Fashion Week was Niu Yu, a 24-year-old amputee model who lost her right leg in an earthquake at age 11.
An injured stork has a new leg after a Czech high-school student 3D-printed a prosthesis for the bird.