BOSTON -- With 2,000 American military personnel injured in action since the beginning of the year, 2010 may be one of the worst years for troops being wounded in Afghanistan. Now, many of them have gone from fighting on the war front to a very different battle on the home front.

NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner traveled to Washington, D.C., to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Hospital to meet with Sgt. Brendan Ferreira, 23, from Assonet.

"Iraq is more like being a police officer and Afghanistan is more like a real war," he said. "You can't let your guard down in that country. Somebody strapped a bunch of bombs to themselves and ran up behind me. I knew I lost my hand in the explosion. They didn't know if I was going to make it."

Those are the memories of March 9, 2010, that Ferreira carries with him every day. Days before his 23rd birthday, a suicide bomber attack in Afghanistan killed two of his fellow soldiers and left him critically injured.

Ferreira's mother, Lisa, said the Army official who called to tell them about their son said he had been very seriously injured.

Ferreira lost his left arm below his elbow, had a compound fracture in his right leg, a severed artery in his left leg, shrapnel injuries and burns to his face and body, 10 stitches in his eye, total hearing loss in his left ear and half of his hearing was gone in his right ear.

Lisa and Michael Ferreira said they didn't even recognize their own son when they first saw him at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"He was so swollen," Michael Ferreira said.

"I think the only reason why we knew it was him was when we looked at his left arm and he had his tattoos and we said, 'That's Brendan,'" Lisa Ferreira said.

Ferreira grew up in Assonet. After high school, he became a professional arborist, but held a secret desire to join the military. After serving 14 months in Iraq, he went to Afghanistan. Ferreira has earned two Purple Hearts.

From his hospital bed, Ferreira said his work is not done.

"If I could suddenly grow my arm back, just for the rest of the time that my soldiers are there, and get my sight back and get everything back, instead of running home and enjoying it, I would run right back over there and help them," he said.

But months of healing, therapy, learning how to use a prosthetic arm, standing and trying to walk again lie ahead of Ferreira.

His parents said it has been a difficult journey to watch.

"As a mom, you're supposed to be the one to take that all away. I can't take that away from him. He has to go through it," Lisa Ferreira said.

"I cry every day. But I got to stay strong for him," Michael Ferreira said.

The Ferreiras said they feel very fortunate that their son is alive and came home and that they can talk to him and feel him. They said they feel bad for the families that can't do that.

Lisa Ferreira said it pains her to think about the families of her son's two friends who were killed in the attack.

"Their son came home in a box," she said.

Michael Ferreira said he is amazed by all the other soldiers who now call Walter Reed home.

"These guys that are there, some of them are missing two lower limbs and an upper limb and their attitudes are better than most people walking on the street today," he said.

"I can't complain," Ferreira said. "I still have three limbs, one working eye and I'm alive. So I've got a whole lot left to do, whole lot that I can do."

Ferreira said that he wants to stay in the military and maybe become a drill sergeant to help train soldiers.

His community of Assonet is hosting an event called the Wounded Soldier Day Fund Raiser Jeep Run on Sunday, July 25.

Recovery Fund For Assonet's Sgt. Brendan Ferreira
P.A.C.C.
175 School St.
Taunton, Mass.
July 25, 2010 1 p.m. -- 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20
Events include: live music, games, raffles, donations of scrap gold (cash for gold), men and boys buzz cuts, moonwalk.
Deadline for Tickets: July 20, 2010
If you have a Jeep, join in the Jeep Run, or just park and show off your Jeep, earlier in the day. It begins at 11 a.m.
For tickets, e-mail C-A-B@COMCAST.NET or call 508-824-3761 or 508-828-8780.