By Senior Airman Michael Malarise
To read his full story, click here 

Senior Airman Michael Malarsie is the Administrator of the Recovering Airman Mentorship Program stationed on Lackland AFB, TX. What is interesting about this one sentence you may ask? Nothing except for the fact that I am 100% blind and still on active duty.

This opens up a very large amount of information and even more questions, one of which is “How on earth can he be blind and on active duty?”.

Before we go into that let’s get a little background information.

I joined the Air Force in May 2007 as a Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) member. To greatly over-simplify things, a TACP calls in air strikes on the front lines for the Army.

I deployed to southern Afghanistan in December of 2009 and on January 3^rd 2010 my 13 man foot patrol was ambushed by insurgents. Two IED’s and small arms fire left the patrol with four KIA, including my teammate Senior Airman Brad Smith, and several wounded including myself.

I have fully recovered from my injuries except for my eyes. My left eye was destroyed in the blast and my right eye suffered severe retina damage which cannot be fixed.

I always wanted to serve in the military and I had planned to retire after my 20 years. I decided to do everything in my power to still reach this goal. Why should only being blind hold me back from  doing  that?

I am still awaiting the medical evaluation board but in the meantime I have started a new Air Force job as the Administrator of a program to aid recovering service members and their families.

This program takes wounded, ill, and injured service members and their family members and trains  them to mentor individuals with similar injuries who are at the initial stages of their recoveries.

There are so many worries and fears that are experienced by our wounded, ill, and injured. No matter how they try medical professionals and friends can only give a small amount of relief from these feelings. It is very different to sit down with someone who has gone through something similar, who has walked in the same footsteps you are. The support and example can make drastic changes in the lives of our recovering service members.

This is a dream job for me. I get to wear my uniform, still have to meet the same requirements as everyone else, and I get to give back and help others who are experiencing things similar to what I went through.

I am very fortunate and blessed to be in the position that I am and I will fight for my right to continue to serve on Active Duty.

To learn more about diversity in our nation’s fighting force, click here.

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