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Founding professor to retire after 37 years

GHC student stays optimistic after loss of leg

Bronze Star recipient Joe Dan Worley not slowed down by injury

By Ryan Silver
[email protected]
Staff Writer

Joseph Daniel Worley, known as Joe Dan, carries an attitude that makes it impossible not to smile in his presence. Worley's easygoing demeanor shines through even though he lost his left leg in Iraq.

Worley, a GHC student native to Paulding County, served his country as a Navy Corpsman, the same as a medic. Worley served side by side with Marines in Fallujah, Iraq, the notorious city just west of Baghdad.

On Sept. 17, 2004, with only two weeks left before his return home, Worley was injured.

He was in the last HUMVEE in a convoy of five vehicles. As the convoy was crossing a bridge, the first vehicle was struck by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

Worley immediately grabbed his medical bag and sprinted towards the front vehicle to treat wounded soldiers

Earlier that morning Worley was in such a hurry that he strapped his 9mm pistol on his hip, instead of attaching it to his vest as usual. As Worley was running, another IED underneath the road exploded right next to him. The explosion took his left leg.

The 9mm pistol was shattered into pieces, but it had stopped the blast from entering into Joe Dan's hip, thus protecting a vital artery and saving his life.

Worley was losing a lot of blood, so he had to apply his own tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He said, �Tying the tourniquet was the worst pain I ever felt, but I knew I had to do it right to survive.�

If that wasn't enough, Worley was shot three times in his right leg and two times in his left by AK-47 rounds as he was trying to crawl to a vehicle.

After the Marines gained the upper hand in the fight and were able to pull Worley to safety, he continued to give aid instruction to help other severely injured soldiers even though he had lost a leg and had been shot five times.

Worley received a Purple Heart for being wounded in combat and a Bronze Star for treating 25 wounded soldiers 10 days prior to his injury.

Worley has a love for life that can be seen clearly when speaking to him; he brings laughter and joy to those around him. He has not let the loss of his leg slow him down.

Worley has a two-year-old daughter named Abigail, whom he loves to take care of.

When you see Worley, a large-framed man with a smile on his face rolling down the hall, tell him thanks for sacrificing so much for his country and our way of life.

To read more about Worley, visit www.vetsforfreedom.org/ourpatriots.