TOBYHANNA, Pa. –
Retired Army Staff Sgt. Earl Granville stepped center stage standing to speak to DLA Distribution Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania employees. He stood on one of his own legs and one prosthetic. Granville’s story speaks boldly of resilience, passion, purpose and being a part of something greater than himself.
Granville enlisted to serve in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard as an infantryman with his twin brother, Joe, out of high school. At the time, he enlisted solely to earn money for college. The two were quickly deployed to Bosnia while serving with the 109th Infantry for a peace keeping mission. Of his three deployments, Granville considers this his “vacation of a deployment”.
After redeploying from Bosnia, he enrolled and attended Lackawanna College. A warning order was sent to his unit to obtain volunteers to deploy to Iraq during his college term. The brothers raised their hands to deploy to Iraq, even though they were exempt due to their Bosnia deployment. It was in his 2005 deployment, specifically Al Asad and Ramadi, the two felt the bond of brotherhood, the greater sense of purpose and feeling that he is a piece of something larger. He forged brotherhood and bonds with his teammates. He was a changed man.
When he returned home, Granville finished his two year degree and another WARNO was dropped. This time it was for volunteers to deploy to Afghanistan. He was one of the first to volunteer, but his brother did not. They had done everything in the military together up to this point. They enlisted together, went to basic, deployed to Bosnia and then Iraq. His brother had a young family and did not want him to deploy so he was taking a step to do this one himself.
In Afghanistan, Granville was promoted to Staff Sergeant, became a squad leader and led his troops on numerous operations in Afghanistan. One such mission called for his unit to escort a Civil Affairs team. The CA Team Lead requested to be the truck commander of Granville’s HMMWV on this specific mission and he agreed, giving up his front seat to be the turret gunner. It was on this mission that his HMMWV was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device. He regained consciousness with his feet elevated, legs mangled and truck destroyed from the IED attack. He says he was “lucky that day because I only lost a leg”. The driver and CA Team Lead lost their lives. He was evacuated and sent to Walter Reed, where he had his left leg amputated and his right leg placed in a cast.
Granville responded greatly to his new circumstances, he had a second chance on life. He took on new challenges, from walking with a prosthetic to playing sled hockey and learning to snowboard. His attitude was infectious, especially after meeting other wounded veterans and training together. His brother took it hard however, believing he should have been there with him in Afghanistan. No matter how much Granville reassured him things were fine, his brother would not believe it and ended up taking his own life.
His brother’s death changed Granville and he began to spiral out of control. Alcohol, drugs, bad influences and people started to take hold of him. Then he ran into someone who knew of him through his brother’s stories. This person shared with him how proud his brother was of him; the positive attitude, how he faced challenges, and how he began to live life to the fullest after Afghanistan. After hearing this, he self-reflected and realized what he was doing now would not make his brother proud anymore. He had fallen into a bad attitude, hung out with the wrong crowd and was making choices his brother would not be proud of. He realized that when he left military service, he lost his purpose and passion. Even more, he lost his feelings of being a part of something greater than himself. Displaying an incredible amount of resiliency, Granville took action to get his life back. He went to counselors, found fitness and obstacle course racing as positive outlets instead of alcohol, drugs, and other bad influences. He strives to honor his brother through a positive attitude and actions to help others that need support.
Nowadays, Granville is a team member of various Disabled Veteran Organizations. He travels nationwide to share his story in hope to inspire others to be resilient, to find passion and purpose. He represents Disabled Veterans in everything he does. He reminded Tobyhanna employees the importance of their jobs in supporting the Warfighter. He reminded them that no matter what is going on in life, we can get through it together. This is our one chance at life and we can make a difference.