Army Staff Sergeant Alex Dillmann was on his second deployment when an improvised explosive device (IED) blast left him paralyzed with catastrophic injuries while in the Province of Ghazni, Afghanistan on Feb. 27, 2011.

The Squad Leader in the first vehicle in a convoy, SSG Dillmann was on a night mission when his truck rolled over an IED, killing one Soldier and leaving four others, including SSG Dillmann, with severe injuries.

Sustaining multiple broken bones, a traumatic brain injury (TBI), lacerations, and internal injuries, Alex’s most serious injuries, burst fractures to the T3, T4, and L4 vertebrae, resulted in paralysis from the chest down. Life-saving measures by his platoon enabled SSG Dillmann and the three other injured Soldiers to be transported to Bagram Air Base where they were stabilized for the trip to Landstuhl, Germany.

SSG Dillmann arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center five days after the blast. Heavily sedated, Alex spent the first month of his recovery unaware of his condition before being transferred to James A. Haley Hospital in Tampa.

Alex and his wife, Holly, are busy raising their son, Maximus. Alex earned his bachelor’s degree in cyber forensics from Kaiser University in 2019 and currently serves as a GS-12 Federal Employee out of USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) on MacDill Airforce Base in Florida. An avid runner prior to his injuries, Alex enjoys hand-cycling and has completed multiple running events for Team HFOT, finishing a half marathon in one hour. He also enjoys hunting, fishing, and weightlifting.