《财富》500强平民英雄大盘点

    杰西•R•阿科斯塔：失明老兵为战友代言

    年龄：57岁

    职务：客户服务现场分析师

    任职公司：Sempra Energy公司南加州瓦斯公司

    地理位置：加登格罗夫，加利福尼亚州

    2006年1月16日，在伊拉克的沙漠里，一发迫击炮弹击中了美国陆军军士长杰西•阿科斯塔，导致他双眼失明。他不仅失去了双眼和部分下颌，而且还承受着外伤性脑损伤。他总共经历了接近40次手术——为了医疗护理曾与退伍军人管理局（VA）斗争，结果得到的只有止痛药。他表示，自己后来对镇痛剂上瘾，而且持续了四年之久。但阿科斯塔没有认命，他开始还击，不仅戒掉了服用止痛药的习惯，而且学会了在失明的情况下行走。2009年，他开始利用自己康复的例子来激励其他人，还成立了一家叫感谢老兵（Thank A Vet）的公益组织，为老兵提供工作培训。他还加入了另外一个慈善组织独立基金会（The Independence Fund）的理事会。这个基金会致力于为受伤老兵提供设备和治疗。如今，在大部分假期，阿科斯塔都用来与自己的德国牧羊犬“查理小子”一起巡游全国，宣传基金会。目前，这个基金会已在南加州购买土地，计划为受伤老兵兴建一座治疗中心。至于推动自己努力的原因，阿科斯塔早已找到了答案，那就是“退伍军人有权享受但却没有享受到的关怀，这是首要原因。”(财富中文网)

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Jesse R. Acosta

    Age 57

    Occupation Customer Service Field Analyst

    Company Southern California Gas Sempra Energy

    Location Garden Grove Base, Calif.

    The mortar that blinded Army Sgt. Major Jesse Acosta hit him in the middle of the Iraq desert on Jan. 16, 2006. He lost both of his eyes and part of his jaw, and suffered traumatic brain injury. In all, he would undergo close to 40 operations—struggling with the VA for health care, only to be prescribed painkillers. He became addicted, he says, to opiates for four years. But Acosta battled back, kicking his painkiller habit and learning to navigate without sight. And in 2009, he began using own recovery to inspire others, founding a nonprofit organization called Thank A Vet to provide workforce training to veterans. He also joined the board of another charity, The Independence Fund, which provides equipment and therapies to injured vets. Acosta now devotes all of his vacation days to traveling the country—with his German Shepherd guide dog, Charlie Boy—to promote the fund, which has purchased land in South Carolina to build a treatment center for wounded veterans. As to what drives him, Acosta has a ready answer: “It’s the care that these men and women are entitled to that they’re not getting, number one.”