SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Before sunrise on Nov. 7 — what the Army calls O-dark-thirty — soldiers from Brooke Army Medical Center’s Warrior Transition Battalion line up in a parking lot. Some stand in formation on two legs, some stand on one leg with the help of crutches or canes. Some stand on legs made of moldable plastic or carbon fiber.

Spc. Colton Sasser, 21, of Casper, waits in his wheelchair for the 7 a.m. call to attention. On April 15, a 200-pound bomb exploded under his truck in Afghanistan, leaving a crater 16 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The blast knocked Colton out for 15 days, exploded part of his spine and required the amputation of his left leg.