Back In The Fight by Sergeant First Class Joseph Kapacziewski, his wife Kimberly, and Charles W. Sasser is an incredible story of perseverance and determination. Through Kimberly’s eyes the reader is able to gain insight to her job not only as a wife and mother, but also as Joe’s motivator as he faces the new challenge of his wounds and recovery.

Kim and Joe discuss how they bravely endured his recovery and his decision to amputate his right leg. In October 2005 while on a mission in Northern Iraq insurgents attacked his convoy.  A grenade fell through the gunner’s hatch and exploded, shattering Joe’s right leg below the knee, damaging his right hip, and severing a nerve and artery in his right arm.  After enduring more than forty surgeries, because of the chronic pain and limited mobility, in 2007 he decided to amputate.  Since Joe lived for being a Ranger he used the Ranger motto, “never surrender,” to accomplish his goal of returning to full combat duty as a squad leader in the Ranger unit in 2008.  This past July he was one of thirty soldiers to be honored at the All Star Game, representing the Boston Red Sox.  He now jokes about his injury, using his beloved baseball, when he noted in the book, “What were the odds that some asshole could have made a major league pitch like that?”

Joe commented, “I met the Ranger’s standards and in some cases exceeded them.  I do feel there are always eyes on me and I have to perform at my best constantly.  Since I have become an amputee I have had five deployments to Afghanistan. I wrote the book to provide inspiration for those who may be going through what I had to endure.  I did not want to lose my leg because I thought that would mean I was a cripple.  I had to prove to myself that I could still achieve what I wanted to by putting in the hard work and the time.  I was helped considerably by my ‘Ranger tough’ wife, Kim.”

The parts of the book where Kim gives her impressions are heart wrenching.  She wants Americans to understand that family members also endure the hardship of an injury and must display outward and inner courage.  For her, the nightmare became even more magnified when she had to deal with not only the fact that Joe was critically injured but that the Army seemed to be impersonal when giving casualty notifications and then literally losing Joe’s whereabouts until he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Hospital. 

Kim commented about her experiences, “I gave a lot of people an earful when they came to check in on Joe.  I wanted to make sure this never happened again.  In that sense I was a lot like Scarlett O’Hara: head strong, bull headed, and determined.  Can you believe that when I went to find out about Joe’s injuries I was told ‘Don’t worry, Mrs. Kap he’s just a little banged up.’ I replied, ‘banged up was falling off a bicycle, not hit by a grenade.’ Then they literally lost him.  He was never where they told me he was supposed to be.  It was a huge mess with a constant change of information.  It was never accurate until Joe got to Walter Reed Medical Hospital.” She started working on making sure this did not happen to anyone else.  Every time an official came to see Joe she would tell them her mind.  She made sure the Army worked on training people to make sure the process got a lot better. One organization she is grateful to for helping out is http://www.operationonevoice.org/shop/.

In her own mind her other job was to close the disconnect between service members families and the American civilian. Kim wants people to understand that military wives “wait a lot.  The Rangers are home for six months and gone for four months.  Joe has now done ten deployments, five as an amputee.  During the deployment just before he was injured he had spent only 32 nights in his own bed over a six-month period.  As wives we wait for them to come home from training, from deployments, for a phone call from them, and hope to never have THAT phone call. I wish people realize that as families we must just wait and hope for our loved one to come home.”

In writing the book they hope that both amputees and family members will understand the reality of the situation.  Regarding his injury, Kim thought she was going to faint when she first saw his leg.  No one warned her about how much pain Joe was in.  “The “Phantom Pains” were just unbelievable.  He would put his head in the pillow to scream and cry.  I stayed up all night long to press the pain medication button so he could rest.”

What she sees as her job going forward is to push other amputees to become constructive citizens.  “Look, Joe could have accepted his fate.  I want the soldiers who lost limbs to live fulfilling lives.  People need to remember most of these soldiers are young, in their twenties.  I don’t want them to take the short easy road and do nothing but collect their benefits.  Americans need to help them find opportunities to contribute to society and become productive.  They need a reason to get up and out of bed every day so they should be given opportunities. They should not be encouraged to accept their injury as the defining moment in their life.”

Back In The Fight is an inspirational story of determination and courage on the part of both Kim and Joe. As this family did, they are hoping that those who have lost a limb, their spouses, and families will have that desire and burning goal to never ever quit, and to lead a ‘new normal life.’ This book shows the spirit and heart of America’s military warriors, including the spouses, who daily defend the freedoms many take for granted.