A Canadian sniper who lost both legs when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2007 has written a memoir about his rise through the military, the struggles of his recovery and the successes he couldn’t have imagined before that life-altering day.
Master Cpl. Jody Mitic, is also known for reaching the “Amazing Race Canada” finale alongside his brother in 2013, after running around the country on his metal blades.
The decorated soldier discussed his new book ‘Unflinching: The Making of Canadian Sniper’ on CTV’s Canada AM.
Mitic was 30 years old and on his third tour of duty when the injury occurred on Jan. 11, 2007. Mitic said he was hesitant to go on patrol, but marched onward, following fourth in line.
That means there were three other people who could have stepped on the mine before Mitic, and he wonders whether the situation might have been worse had someone else triggered the blast.
Mitic told Canada AM he only felt scared twice before that horrific day, including about a month earlier.
“I was up early and looking out with my binoculars … and I just had this feeling,” he said. “Up to that moment, I had guaranteed my team, ‘don’t worry boys, we’re all going home (but) at that moment I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’ll make it.’
Immediately after the injury, Mitic didn’t grasp the degree to which his double-amputation would change his career.
He said he remembers being on a gurney getting ready to leave Afghanistan to begin recovery and telling his comrades: “Don’t worry boys, I’ll get some new feet, we’ll be back here in action, back here chasing Taliban in a few years.”
“And I truly thought that’s what it was like.”
Mitic said he pulled through the long recovery by treating it like any other task or course the army would assign. “When I was wounded I was on ‘get better course,’” he said.
But there were dark periods, including the realization he was addicted to the prescription pain medication oxycodone.
If he didn’t take the pills, his skin would “start to crawl and (I’d) get this feeling … like my chest was hollowed.”
Mitic initially hid the addiction from his wife Alannah, but on one particular Father’s Day, the father of two gathered the courage to tell his wife that he was quitting the drug.
Late last year Mitic took on yet another new challenge. He ran for and won a seat on Ottawa city council.
Mitic admits his life may have been easier had he not lost his legs, but said “it certainly wouldn’t have been any more complete.”