At just 20 years old, Corporal Matthew Bradford was fighting for his life, battling depression and guilt after sustaining life-threatening injuries. It was January 18, 2007, when a bomb planted by an insurgent in Haditha, Iraq, exploded inside a culvert directly underneath his feet. The injuries resulted, among other long-term consequences, in immediate blindness and loss of both legs.

Throughout most of his youth, Matthew had a strong impression that it was his mission in life to serve others in whatever way he possibly could. As a high school senior, he had enlisted in the Marines as the ultimate means of fulfilling that desire. Now, those hopes for the future seemed dashed. How could he lift others when he himself was so down? Resolving that failure is not getting knocked down but staying down, now a mantra of his, Matthew picked himself up and resumed his mission to lift others, albeit on a somewhat different path. Today, as an exemplary BVA member, his light shines on those who may temporarily see only darkness. He is an example of a blinded veteran who lifts and inspires others to never give up.

Matthew is a BVA pioneer of the present, blazing a trail for many who now follow his example. He shares the same vision that BVA’s nearly one hundred founding members seemed to possess as they gathered for a much-publicized meeting at Avon Old Farms Army Convalescent Hospital on March 28, 1945. The minutes of the meeting recorded that those assembled, all young men at the time, were recovering from an assortment of combat injuries. The wound they all shared was their loss of sight. They were BVA’s original pioneers with a vision of what they could become both individually and as a group.

BVA strives to assist combat blinded veterans such as Matthew and his forebearers who met at Avon Old Farms by connecting them with the benefits, services, and resources that bring about their adjustment to blindness. The organization now seeks to help veterans with at least some remaining vision make similar adjustments in refocusing their lives.

Read more about Matthew’s story here.