Much has changed for Travis Largent, a Northern Arizona University student and military veteran, since he graduated from Desert Hills High School in 2005.After graduating, Largent followed his passion to serve his country with the U.S. Army, and was deployed halfway around the world in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, he found the adventure he was looking for, and also found himself in consistent danger. He ended his tour in a harrowing firefight that left him with three bullet wounds and a collapsed lung, bleeding and waiting for more than 30 hours for the medical transport that would ultimately take him to safety.
"We were in a five vehicle convoy, and we were ambushed,"Largent says of the attack, which occurred in January 2008 in Ibrahim, some 50 kilometers south of Kandahar, near the border with Pakistan. "We were under fire and being attacked on two sides. And because of the narrow terrain, we couldn't back up."
Largent was leaning out of an Army Humvee and firing, when he felt "heat" in his chest. "I had been shot three times in the side."
Eventually, the convoy moved to relative safety, but Largent's troubles were far from over.
"A medic was treating me, and we were waiting for a medivac to come in," he says. "The medic said he had 36 hours worth of blood for me - after that, there was nothing left. I ended up waiting 34 hours for the medivac to arrive."
Largent spent two months recuperating in Germany, and was sent at his request back to his unit. He ultimately was awarded the Bronze Star for valor.
Now, back in the U.S., married and studying at NAU, Largent, 22, says his experience in Afghanistan motivated him to become a classroom teacher.
After completing his coursework, he hopes to return to Desert Hills to undertake his student teaching.
"What I saw in Afghanistan were a lot of young men who were uneducated. And because they were uneducated, they were able to be manipulated," he says.
"I saw the importance of education," Largent says. "And I wanted to make a difference."
