WASHINGTON -- "I want you to close your eyes and I want you to think, have you ever been hit in the face so hard that you can't think?"

That's what Army Sgt. Robert Bartlett tells other war veterans, when he explains what happened to him on May 5, 2005. That's the day his Humvee blew up near Baghdad. It was a roadside bombs that appeared out of nowhere.

"It cut me from my left temple across my face," Bartlett said. "My jaw was hanging down over here."

As Bartlett made the journey back to the United States, his heart stopped beating three times.

"I ended up with respiratory and cardiac arrest," he said. "They brought me back. I died again in Bilad and they brought me back again at Bilad and I died again at Walter Reed."

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Eventually, the doctors stabilized Bartlett's body. But then extreme facial disfigurement was his biggest obstacle. Until he met Johns Hopkins Hospital Plastic Surgeon Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who was able to take skin and bone from other parts of his body, including his wrists, to rebuild his face. Sgt. Bartlett got a new titanium jaw and an artificial eye.

More than than three years later, Bartlett is a different person. His physical scars are still there, but he's using his emotional wounds to help heal other soldiers.

"People ask me if I'd do it all over again and I say in a freaking heart beat," he said. "I go around the wards to the guys who are just fresh off the battlefield that are wounded and I'll talk to them and let them know that it's up to them. it's up to them what they get out of it. It could be a positive or a negative thing."

Bartlett said it's important to talk to the soldiers who are fresh off the battlefield while they are still in the process of healing. And if he can keep just one person from giving up hope, then he's done his job.

"You got to face those demons," he said. "You got to face those walls in front of you and you got to conquer them."

More Information:

Sgt. Robert Barlett at the Veteran’s Administration