Staff Sgt. Luke Sciulli is thankful he survived the events of Jan. 18.
The 30-year-old Economy native was hurt when he and other members of the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, popularly known as Green Berets, were breaching a structure in southern Afghanistan that was booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices that detonated.
Sciulli and another man were pinned in the rubble, and Sciulli’s neck, shoulder blade and pelvis were fractured. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.
In the months since, he’s gone through several surgeries and is recovering at a VA Medical Center in Tampa, Fla. Sciulli's friends and family in Beaver County have also rallied behind him to support what's going to be a long recovery.
“Things are starting to heal,” Sciulli said.
Sciulli was raised in Economy, worked as a paramedic here and also was a member of the Beaver Falls Fire Department’s dive team.
He’s a 2006 graduate of Quigley Catholic High School and in 2010 graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. After that, he enlisted in the Army and has been a part of the 10th Special Forces Group based in Fort Carson, Colo. Sciulli’s service in Afghanistan was his fourth overseas deployment.
The support he’s received from the people of Beaver County has played a big role in his recovery.
“It’s an overwhelming number of people that have shown support,” he said. “It’s definitely a key part of my recovery, the support I got from people back home.”
His mother, Roberta, agreed.
"The community support has been quite remarkable," said Roberta Sciulli, who added that she has felt a "roller coaster of emotion" since her son was hurt.
"At a time like that, as a mom I became very reflective remembering him as my child, not a patriot and a special forces combat medic serving on behalf of our country," she said. "Even as a child and young adult, he cared for sick family members, neighbors and eventually the people of Beaver County as a paramedic. His sense of call to duty and service to others was always evident — paramedic, firefighter, speaker as an alum to high school students at Quigley.
"We're grateful for the way things are right now. He's in good spirits and making progress, and we're very optimistic," she said. "As a family, we are humbled and proud of his service to our country; grateful for the talent, support and respect by staff at Walter Reed, the Green Beret Foundation and Care Coalitions."
Sciulli remembers the events leading up to and following his injury.
“I turned 30 on Jan. 6. This happened 12 days later,” he said of the day he was hurt.
The building exploded between 2 and 3 a.m. that day. He was paralyzed but didn’t lose consciousness until he was taken from Kandahar to Germany for treatment, he said.
In Germany, he had 10-hour emergency neck surgery and then was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., before being transferred to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, where he is rehabilitating.
“I’m still in a wheelchair. I’m not able to walk,” Sciulli said.
But in the next month or so, he’ll be able to start putting weight onto his pelvis, and his doctors say he should be able to make a full recovery.
“It’s definitely been a long, slow grind. I don’t see results quickly,” he said.
Because of the nature of his injuries, it could take as long as two years to heal, he said.
“It’s getting better. It’s not too bad. It’s definitely a mental struggle as much as it is a physical struggle,” Sciulli said.
Through it all, Sciulli has felt the support of the people here, he said.
During the Beaver County Special Olympics Polar Plunge in January, the Beaver Falls firefighters he once worked with took the plunge in his honor, and friends also started a gofundme.com drive to raise money to help his family cope with the costs of traveling to and from Walter Reed for visits. Since he’s been in Florida, he’s also had several visits from friends and family, Sciulli said.
He’s “never stopped getting support” from people in Beaver County, Sciulli said.
“It’s a testimony to the resolve of Beaver County,” Sciulli’s cousin, Bryan Mikush of Economy, said. “He’s constantly getting phone calls, text messages, visits (from Beaver Countians).”
After being hurt, it was Mikush whom Sciulli called first to let his family know he’d been hurt. They’d exchanged calls during Sciulli’s deployment, but Mikush said he knew that this time it wasn’t good news.
“Whenever you’re sitting there and it’s 7 a.m. and you get a Facetime (video call) from him,” Mikush said.
But that call meant he was alive, Mikush said.
“It was nerve-wracking. But you’ve got to keep your composure,” Mikush said.
Mikush recently visited his cousin in Tampa and said he’s doing well.
"I’m alive. That’s what’s important,” Sciulli said. “I was lucky to get wounded. Because every year that goes by, we lose (more) guys on every single deployment. To me, that’s what’s important, making sure those guys’ (who were killed) names and faces aren’t lost. A lot of people forget our country is still at war.”