“Just driving along and that’s when I feel an intense heat blast on my left side. I was thinking to myself, ‘Holy crap, I just got hit.'”

A creek ran before him at the moment of impact, just a few feet away.

“I try to get to the creek but the flames overtook me and I collapsed there … I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna die, I’ve broken my promise to my dad that I’d always take care of my family, broken my promise to my son that he won’t grow up without his dad like I did, broken my promise to [my wife] Carmen saying I will always come back. I must have said I was going to die there and that’s when one of the lieutenants said, ‘You’re not gonna die here DT,’ and helps me up and we both jumped in the creek.”

***

Since that fateful day in Afghanistan — December 4, 2005 — when a roadside bomb blew up beneath him and burned 80 percent of his body, United States Air Force Master Sergeant Israel Del Toro has not only survived, but he’s become a modern medical marvel. And, an inspiration.

“He’s like Superman,” says Carmen.

But, it started with trauma. Tons of it. More than a human should be forced to bear.

The last thing he remembers after the bomb went off was a doctor cutting off his watch. Weeks later he woke up in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas. A first glance into the mirror almost made him wish he had died.

“It wasn’t a vanity thing, it was because at the time I was 30 years old, and I thought I was a monster, what’s my three-year-old son going to think?”

This mindset changed quickly, however, when he was finally reunited with little Israel.

“He comes running out and stops and he stares, and I’m like ‘Oh crap he’s scared, he’s terrified of me’ and then he just tilts his head and he’s like ‘Papi?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, buddy’ and he comes up and gives me the most amazing hug. It was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had besides watching him being born.”

Today, more than a decade later, the airman’s son — now a teenager – reflects on what his father did for his country.

“If you’re having a bad day, think about him. He got blown up, had over 100 surgeries, he was under fire and yet he pushed through.”

It’s been 11 years since Del Toro’s life changed forever in Afghanistan on that winter day. Thankfully, now, it’s no longer filled with hospital rooms and doctor appointments and setbacks. It’s filled, rather, with fellow airmen, and the big blue sky.

The USAF Skydiving Team — Wings of Blue.

This from KKTV:

“It is a privilege to have him down here,” said Cadet 1st Class Minje Kim. “The fact that he wants to come down here leaves me speechless … it was always in his heart to serve and he gave up everything for that.”

Del Toro’s goal is to be medically cleared so he can jump with them.

“I’m not gonna let those SOBs who left that bomb by the road the satisfaction that they made me unhappy,” Del Toro said, “I’m giving them the big middle finger which I can’t do now.”

Del Toro is the first 100 percent combat disabled Air Force member to re-enlist. He also is a motivational speaker and an athlete holding a world record in shot put, discus and javelin.

For the record, on the day he suffered the brunt of an explosion that would’ve killed most mortals, he — a joint terminal attack controller — still managed afterwards to call in airstrikes coordinates.

“I always get my target,” Del Toro said.