January 6, 2010 - Courier-Journal
Story by columnist Dale Moss
Warrior wounded but not woeful. Lanesville native determined to enjoy life.
Story by columnist Dale Moss
Warrior wounded but not woeful. Lanesville native determined to enjoy life.
Anyone go scuba diving lately off the coast of Aruba? Adam Popp did.
He would like next to fit in skiing, before it is nicer to bike. Time is the only bugaboo. Job and studies tend to demand.
“Being back in the real world sucks,” Popp said.
Popp, 30, a Lanesville native and 1997 Providence High School graduate, rejoins that real world awfully different yet admirably the same. Wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan, Popp adapts to a prosthetic right leg. Yet he is absolutely no less determined to be active, to enjoy life. Whoever feels sorry for Popp, well, don’t.
“I can’t complain about anything, really,” Popp said during a recent holiday visit home. “I could – but I’d be one of those other people.”
Popp lives in Baltimore and works in a defense contractor’s research lab. Among his duties, he helps devise ways for soldiers to detect and counter devices like the one that disabled him in December 2007.
An Air Force tech sergeant, Popp cleared routes for patrols. He chose that role, recognized its risks, indeed grieved when he didn’t beat the odds and ended up spending months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. MORE>>>
He would like next to fit in skiing, before it is nicer to bike. Time is the only bugaboo. Job and studies tend to demand.
“Being back in the real world sucks,” Popp said.
Popp, 30, a Lanesville native and 1997 Providence High School graduate, rejoins that real world awfully different yet admirably the same. Wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan, Popp adapts to a prosthetic right leg. Yet he is absolutely no less determined to be active, to enjoy life. Whoever feels sorry for Popp, well, don’t.
“I can’t complain about anything, really,” Popp said during a recent holiday visit home. “I could – but I’d be one of those other people.”
Popp lives in Baltimore and works in a defense contractor’s research lab. Among his duties, he helps devise ways for soldiers to detect and counter devices like the one that disabled him in December 2007.
An Air Force tech sergeant, Popp cleared routes for patrols. He chose that role, recognized its risks, indeed grieved when he didn’t beat the odds and ended up spending months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. MORE>>>
