US soldier who severed his own leg to help his crewmates gives first TV interview

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Soldier who severed his own leg to help save crewmates opens up in first TV interview

Army Specialist Ezra Maes lost his leg after pulling himself free from behind a 65-ton crashed tank to help his crewmates with their injuries. Maes and his doctor join 'Fox & Friends' to tell the story.

Ezra Maes, a U.S. soldier who severed his own leg so he could to help his injured crewmates after a tank crash, was called “the pinnacle of a resilient American soldier” by his doctor on “Fox & Friends.”

“I was probably more frazzled than he was when he and I first met because I understood that the infection that he had in the residual right limb could easily kill him,” Dr. Joseph Alderete said.

Alderete, the surgeon who operated on him, said despite the circumstances, Maes had a positive outlook.

Army Spc. Maes, 21, who grew up in Colorado and New Mexico, was on a weeklong rotation in Slovakia while deployed to Poland last year. The armor crewman served as a loader for the main cannon of an M1A2 Abrams tank.

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He and two other crew members fell asleep in the tank one night only to wake up with the hulking machine slowly rolling downhill at 5 mph.

They quickly learned the parking brake had failed. The crew went through all the emergency procedures to get the tank to stop, but nothing worked, Maes recalled.

The tank picked up speed, rumbling up to 30 mph, but was slowed after hitting several trees, eventually crashing into an embankment.

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Thrown across the tank, Maes' right leg became lodged in the gearing under the tank. Maes said when his comrades called for his help, he freed himself, describing the severing of his leg as “getting a loose tooth off.”

“The entire feeling was ... [to do] everything we could to just kind of relax ourselves and not make a big panic out of it. We knew if we panicked, we’d probably die,” Maes said.

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In his first TV interview since the freak accident, Maes went on to say, “Once we were found, it just turned to all jokes and laughter. We were all just so happy to be alive. That was the main feeling that was going on.”

The specialist has since been immersed in physical and occupational therapy at the Center for the Intrepid, the medical center's outpatient rehabilitation center.

Fox News’ Melissa Leon contributed to this report.