Marble Falls graduate keeps running despite Iraq war injury
MARBLE FALLS — A photograph of Brandon Pelletier in 2007 shows him standing above a river in Iraq patrolled by his Marine Corps unit.
He cradles an assault rifle, his hair is cropped short and he’s in a combat uniform with a bullet-resistant vest. In other words, this 2006 Marble Falls High School graduate looks like what you’d expect a Marine to look like — tall, athletic and capable.
Fast forward four years, and it doesn’t look like much as changed, except that now Pelletier has left the service and wears “civvies.”
Marble Falls High School graduate Brandon Pelletier (right) hands off the baton to Lance Cpl. Joshua Wege in the 4×100-meter relay at the 2011 Warrior Games May 17 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo by Sgt. Michael Cifuentes, USMC.
But there is a difference. The right hand that gripped the assault rifle in the photo can’t hold anything anymore. It’s paralyzed.