In April 2005, Scott Smiley, then a lieutenant in the Army, found himself in charge of a combat team platoon in Mosul, Iraq. Scott, a graduate of West Point and an Army Ranger School alumni, conducted multiple combat operations during his time in Iraq.

On April 6th, 2005, Scott was approaching a car which had been stopped at a check point.  “I was walking up to this car to get the driver out.  It turned out to be a suicide bomber,” he said matter-of-factly.  “As I walked up to the guy, he and the car just disintegrated in front of me.”

The blast sent shrapnel into his brain, leaving him temporarily paralyzed and permanently blind. 

Scott’s road to recovery has been an odyssey in short order.  First evacuated to Germany for several surgeries, Scott was later transferred to Walter Reed for physical rehabilitation.

Following his time at Walter Reed, Scott spent two months in Palo Alto, California, learning blindness skills to “get on with my life.”  Through the Veterans Administration’s Visually Impaired Service Team program (VST), He learned how to navigate with a white cane and quickly learned how to use a computer with a voice output system.

“I had grown up with a computer,” he says, “so that was pretty easy, and even getting around, well, once you know the techniques, you just do it.  Besides, you can always ask someone. I can get anywhere I want to be.”

For Scott Smiley, where he wanted to be was the Army.  “I’m the same person I was before; I still have some skills, experience, and leadership abilities of value to the Army.”

Scott is one of more than 60 soldiers who have continued to serve their country following a severe injury; he is one of only two blind service members who continue to serve. 

“It was a bit of a fight at first,” he says, “but the Army is beginning to change it’s attitudes toward severely injured soldiers.” 

Following yet another surgery, Scott accepted a position with Fort Monroe's Training and Doctrine Command evaluating basic training policies and procedures.  He stayed for 9 months at this post, and now, Captain Smiley continues to push and challenge himself.

This fall, Scott began his Masters in Business Administration at Duke University.  His plan is to complete his MBA in the next eighteen months and then pursue a teaching position at one of the military academies.  There has already been some interest from the schools, and Scott has an interest in teaching in the areas of behavior sciences and leadership.

“It’s about staying motivated,” he says. “Sometimes people can be negative or say that you can’t do something.  I consider their opinion, file it, and then I move on! I just want to be happy.”

One of the ways he stays motivated is through exercise.  “If I didn’t exercise...Well, I just have to—it’s part of who I am.”  Scott runs regularly with his wife Tiffany and uses the gym when he has the chance. 

In addition to exercise, work, and his MBA program, Scott and Tiffany are enjoying the couples’ first child, Grady Douglass.  “Tiffany is a wonderful mother,” Scott says, “but I still get to change a diaper every now and then.”