Seventeen months after Army medic Kortney Clemons became an amputee due to a roadside bomb in Baghdad, he ran the 100-meter race in 15.61 seconds at the U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Championships—and that was just the beginning. Amped: A Soldier's Race for Gold in the Shadow of War by Kortney Clemons and Bill Briggs is Clemons’ account of his disability, his rehabilitation, and his self-imposed mission to become the first disabled Iraq veteran to win Paralympic gold.

Clemons relives the blast that took his leg and the lives of three fellow soldiers with disarming frankness. He shares the intimate details of his injury—not only its physical aspects, but his darkest anger, doubts, fears and despair. But when Clemons realized that his prosthetic leg would allow him to run again, he found a new mission: to set a supportive, hopeful example for other disabled veterans facing the same trials.

Briggs fleshes out Clemons’ search for dignity and self-worth with brilliant contextual writing. Far from detracting from the story, each detail—from the political turmoil of small-town Mississippi, to the ironic timing of Clemons’ rehab with the politics of the Iraq War, to the history of the Paralympics, to the intricacies of prosthetic knees and legs—adds immensely to the reading experience.

This powerful, moving story is told with vivid, compelling detail, giving it an edge-of-your-seat, you-are-there feeling from start to finish. Clemons and Briggs prove that there is hope, but neither of them hold back about how much work it takes to put a life back together. Highly recommended for all returning soldiers and anyone who is struggling to recover from a severe setback in life.

Publisher: Wiley
Publish date: June 30, 2008
288 pages
ISBN-10: 0470281375
ISBN-13: 978-0470281376