Right before the explosion, Koeck, a former Marine and Army infantryman, remembered sitting down in a barber chair in Afghanistan and watching as the mirror before him began “flexing out.” It was early in the morning of Aug. 7, 2012, and he wanted to take advantage of being on a main base and get a haircut after being stationed at a smaller outpost.
“All of a sudden, the whole place came down,” Koeck, now 39, remembered. Later, after he crawled out of the rubble of the leveled building, he’d learn that a truck loaded with 4,000 pounds of explosives had detonated about 80 yards from where he’d been sitting, resulting in a number of fatalities and serious injuries.
But even though the former paratrooper would sustain serious injuries of his own from the explosion that would later land him in the hospital for 19 months, he initially shook off the headaches and severe balance issues — not to mention the couple of teeth that got knocked out from the blast — and went back to work.
This story is from the Winter 2019 edition of Jersey's Best.
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This story is from the Winter 2019 edition of Jersey's Best.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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