- Afghanistan in Afghanistan cost one veteran his sight but not his drive.

It's a normal day for Brian Kinsley at the Bloomfield Bike Shop. He unpacks his tools and goes to work.

He served two years in the Army and was out with special forces in Afganistan fixing one of their vehicles when he was hit in the head with a bullet.

"It went through, temple to temple," he said. "I forgot which way it went but it went in through the temple right here. If it went farther back, it would have affected my brain."

Kinsley doesn't remember anything. He woke up days later at Walter Reed hospital. His sight was gone but not his spirit. As soon as he could, he started looking for work.

"Because if you just stay and wallow in your sorrows, it's not going to get you anywhere," Kinsley said.

As a former mountain biker and stunt rider, he wanted to work in a bicycle shop. The owner of Bloomfield Bicycle didn't think he could do it and was very skeptical to hire him.

"As you can see, there are things sticking out there and things get in the way and I was a little nervous about it," Mike Wolf, of Bloomfield Bicycle, said.

But, Kinsley waspersistentt and the military even sent him to a special school in Arkansas where he learned to work on bikes.

"He's great at bikes, he's really good," Wolf said.

"I always like working with my hands, and I still have the ability to do it, in that sense," Kinsley said. "So, why not go out and do it?"

So what is next for him? Kinsley is keeping up with the future, he is going to learn how to work on electric bikes at the bike shop.


http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_bloomfield_veteran_blind_bikes_200811112337_rev1