‘This is a new beginning for both of you’: Marine amputee visits Boston Marathon bombing victims

A Marine wounded warrior offers words of encouragement to victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. (YouTube screen grab)

The Boston Marathon bombing last week rocked the whole country, killing three people and turning dozens of others into amputees. Over and over again, the lower-leg injuries sustained were compared to those that U.S. forces seen after stepping on improvised explosive devices overseas.

It stands to reason, then, that few people could offer more credible words of encouragement to the new amputees in Boston than a wounded warrior who lost limbs serving in the military. This video is making the rounds online today, including on the blog Blackfive:

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The YouTube page for the video points viewers to the Celeste and Sydney Corcoran Support Page on Facebook. They are mother and daughter, and badly wounded in the attack last week. Celeste had both legs amputated below the knee, while her Sydney sustained serious shrapnel wounds to the arteries in her legs, according to the Lowell Sun.

One of the Marines — identified in the video as Gabe — tells Celeste that “we’re the exact same,” and adds that she will be able to support her body weight better than him because she kept her legs to below the knee.

“This isn’t the end,” the Marine says. “This is the beginning.”

A second Marine in the room points tells Celeste she looks “real good,” and motions to her legs with a few more words of encouragement.

“This doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is just a change of scenery. It really is.”

UPDATE: A Marine veteran and friend on Twitter tells me that the first wounded warrior in this video is Sgt. Gabe Martinez, a combat engineer who was wounded in Marjah, Afghanistan, in 2010.