In 2006, Randy Nantz lay in an emergency room in Baghdad with his legs badly burned and a large portion of his rear end blown off by an explosive.
The Green Beret communications sergeant had just survived a blast from a roadside bomb. Deployed with the 5th Special Forces Group, Nantz’s unit had been on its way to check out a “bad neighborhood” in Baghdad when the explosive struck his Humvee and left his leg engulfed in flames.
“It went through the fuel tank,” he said. “The fuel ignited and sprayed across my leg. It was like going from not on fire to lighting a matchstick.”
His injuries were severe, and after a grueling rehabilitation process, Nantz now has a prosthetic lower left leg. Ten years later, the retired soldier and his family have been selected by the nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes to receive a mortgage-free, 2,600-square-foot home in the Harvest development west of Argyle.