An American soldier who was seriously wounded during a bomb attack in Iraq on Nov. 13 re-enlisted just hours after the ambush, telling Army officers he still had a job to do, the Army reported Monday.
Spc. Christopher Hoyt, an infantryman from California with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was injured after an improvised explosive device — or IED — exploded near him while he was out on a foot patrol near Zaganiyah, Iraq.
Two of Hoyt’s fellow soldiers were killed in the attack. Hoyt was rushed to the emergency room at Logistics Support Area Anaconda where he was treated for cuts to his legs and body.
It was there, after having witnessed the deaths of his comrades, that Hoyt decided to re-enlist for four more years.
"He said he wasn’t finished," Hoyt’s battalion commander Lt. Col. Mark Landes said.
Landes conducted the re-enlistment himself. "He said, ‘I still have a job to do.' "
Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell, the brigade’s top non-commissioned officer, who was also present during Hoyt’s re-enlistment at Anaconda, said Hoyt was the epitome of what a soldier should be.
"It takes a person of very strong character to go through an incident where another soldier five feet away was killed, and he was severally wounded, and still say 'I believe in what we are doing and I want to stay on the team. I want to support the United States Army and my country,' " Troxell said.
"He is a model for what all men and women should be, and that is very patriotic and very selfless," Troxell said.
Hoyt is currently recovering in an Army hospital in Germany.
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