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Few souls know better than Travis Mills that life can change in an instant.
While on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, the United States Army Staff Sergeant was having a “normal day at work” when, while at a resting stop, an improvised explosive device detonated. Six seconds later he came to and found all of his limbs had been blown off.
“My baby girl — am I ever going to see her again?” he asked as a medic tied tourniquets on both of his arms and legs.
Four days later, he woke up in the hospital: He’d become one of five soldiers from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to survive a quadruple amputation. Despite all odds, Mills was still alive, but he was now missing his left arm below the elbow, his right arm below the shoulder and both legs above the knee.
He was unsure if he could still be a good husband and father. “I told my wife she should leave me,” he recalled to The Post. “But she stayed.”
‘I used to hate this day, but I realized how grateful I am to celebrate, because those injuries should’ve ended my life.’
Travis Mills
Mills informed his doctors he’d be out of the hospital in 10 months — he needed to get back to his family, he explained.
“It was one task at a time. Someone had to feed me, and then I got my own arm to feed myself, and then I was able to start walking again, and get my life back,” he said. He and his infant daughter ended up learning to walk at the same time.
“Now she’s 10, and she doesn’t remember me with my limbs,” said Mills.
A decade has now passed since April 10, 2012, when Mills miraculously survived the IED blast: This weekend, the now 34-year-old celebrated his tenth annual Alive Day.
“For me it’s a day of reflection on what’s happened and how far we’ve come since my wife got that phone call not knowing if I was going to live or die,” said the now-retired Mills, who has since become a motivational speaker, author and business owner. “I used to hate this day, but I realized how grateful I am to celebrate, because those injuries should’ve ended my life.”
In the years since nearly dying, Mills has committed himself to sharing his experience as a testament to the incredible human ability to survive even the most horrific ordeals.
“I tell people the two life lessons I’ve lived by are: Don’t dwell on the past, but reminisce it, and you can’t always control your situation but you can always control your attitude,” he said.
In addition to telling his tale through his 60-odd annual speaking gigs across the globe, Mills has also written a book and starred in a documentary about it. As well, he started the Travis Mills Foundation, a non-profit which, among other resources and programs, offers an all-expenses paid healing retreat to veterans injured in active duty or as a result of their service to the nation. He also owns a restaurant in central Maine, not far from the custom smart home he shares with his wife, daughter and four-year-old son.
He was even the inspiration for local Maine beer-maker Baxter Brewing Co.’s Limb-It-Less blonde ale.
Fate did not deal Travis Mills an easy hand and yet, in the 10 years since he stood at death’s door, he has not just reclaimed his life but turned it into a beacon of resilience for anyone and everyone who hears his story.
“At some point you figure they’re not growing back, so you can mope about it or get better — I try to live my life as if it’s nothing different to not have legs. I don’t dwell on it,” he told The Post. “My whole job is to get people to look past the injuries and see me for me.”
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