Mar. 27-Bethesda, MD-"Say I won't." U.S. Marine Cpl. Joshua Benjamin "J.B." Kerns has adopted from popular culture this three-word phrase of defiance and pride.

From the Roanoke Times, March 27, 2012, Page 1. You see it in his stride as he deftly crosses a busy intersection in downtown Bethesda on artificial legs. On April 7, 2011, Kerns, a combat engineer, and fellow Marines moved into the Ladar Bazaar in Afghanistan intending to clear the notoriously dangerous marketplace of improvised explosive devices. Months later a report from the Marines said the area was "covered with IEDs and saturated with the insurgency's presence" when Marines attempted to clear it throughout the early months of 2011. A soldier near Kerns accidentally stepped on a pressure plate and triggered an IED. The blast and its shrapnel ultimately claimed both of Kerns' legs below the knee and his right arm below the elbow. He suffered serious wounds also to his left arm and other parts of his body from the metal and grit that pierced and peppered his skin. He was serving his third tour in Afghanistan. Nearly one year later, Kerns, now 22, is scheduled to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda today and head home to the community of Ararat in Patrick County after months of intensive physical and occupational therapy. On Saturday, movie star Gary Sinise and friends will hold a benefit concert at Martinsville High School to raise money to build a specially equipped home for Kerns. The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation, working together as "Building for America's Bravest," have already purchased 16 acres in Patrick County with frontage on the Ararat River Source: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/306675