Injured Soldier Gets Hero’s Welcome At Ysleta Game

EL PASO, TX — While students and grads cheered on the players as they nabbed a decisive win for its homecoming game, they saved plenty of energy to show some appreciation for one special spectator.

He’s Pvt. Adrian Garcia, who was named the school’s outstanding ex-student for 2007. Football fans gathered on Friday at the Ysleta High School stadium to watch their team take on San Elizario.

Fans on both sides of the field gave Garcia a hero’s welcome when he was introduced to the crowd.

Garcia was injured in March while serving in Iraq. He was hurt when the Humvee he was riding in came under insurgent fire. The vehicle blew up when a rocket-propelled grenade struck it, and doctors were forced to amputate both of Garcia’s legs just above the knee.

“I don’t consider myself a role model,” Garcia said. “Young people come up to me to ask advice. I don’t tell them to not join the military, I tell them if they want to, to be aware of the risks and the challenges.”

Garcia occasionally has to go for treatment at a military hospital in San Antonio, and is due to receive more treatment there later this month.

Garcia graduated from Ysleta High School in 2006. Teachers who know him have told ABC 7 that his grades were good enough for college, but he decided to servein the militarybefore studying for a degree.