Ezra Maes

Ezra Maes is a 1 Abraham’s Crewman in the United States Army. He was critically injured on September 18, 2018 during a field training exercise in Slovakia. Ezra grew up in Los Alamos, NM, and Santa Fe, NM.  His family, mother, stepfather, and grandparents are all natives of northern New Mexico. Ezra joined the United States Army at the age of 18, immediately after turning 18, while attending Santa Fe High school, during his senior year.  Ezra, is now 20.  At the time of his accident, Ezra had been nominated for officers’ school at West Point and was in the middle of the application process.  Ezra was airlifted from Slovakia to Ramstein Air Force Base, and once stabilized was airlifted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.  Ezra’s injuries include, a broken lower left leg, broken shoulder and five pelvis fractures and an amputated right leg. Ezra was thrown toward the turret where his leg got trapped, while most of his leg was severed in the accident, Ezra had to complete the amputation process of the leg for his own survival.  

Their tank malfunctioned, and they lost control of it. The soldiers did everything they could to try to call for help and keep the tank straight, so they wouldn’t roll over. As the tank crashed through the trees and quickly picked up speed as they went down into a ravine, their hope was to hit a tree large enough to stop them. When they finally hit the bottom, the turret broke apart from the hull and caused them to all get thrown about. His sergeant was thrown forward into the control panels and the driver was trapped in the driver’s hole. Ezra was thrown toward the turret where his leg got trapped.  After they landed and were assessing their injuries he realized he was trapped. Ezra braced himself to free himself from the turret and this action tore his leg off.  Ezra hopped to the back the tank to get to the first aide equipment while his sergeant was still trying to free herself and help the driver. That’s when the blood loss got to be too much, so his sergeant instructed him to use his belt as a tourniquet, to stop the bleeding of the amputated leg. They lost radio contact with command when the turret separated. The crew heard his phone buzzing on the tank and his sergeant was able to find it, so they could call for help. The sergeant was unable to get his passcode to let her in, so she tossed the phone down to him and Ezra was able to catch it while holding his belt in his teeth tight on his leg to prevent additional blood loss. Rescue took longer than expected took because they had a spotty connection and were down in a ravine. Once rescue got to them they worked fast to get them to the Humvees and then the helicopter. They spent a couple of days on Slovakia and then a couple of days in Germany before being transferred back to the states.

Ezra is so thankful for everyone’s love and support in all this. He knows it is a long road ahead, but he is so happy to have a second chance at life and be able to travel that road. He wants to make sure how much everyone realizes that his sergeant is the true hero on all this when she had the strength to pull herself through her own injuries to get to the phone. And help them all keep a cool head in this crisis. His driver has been able to move around and is coming to visit almost every day to keep the moral high. 

Ezra and his crew (two others) are so thankful to be alive and are more concerned about each other than themselves. The other two crewmates sustained major trauma and were airlifted to Santa Antonio as well.  Both have left the main facility and moved to rehab facilities and continue to keep in constant contact with Ezra. Since the accident they have all been in such great spirits and so happy to get to come home to their families.

 Ezra loves all sports. His favorites are snowboarding rock climbing and golf. This injury will not stop him from enjoying those things he will just figure out a new way to do it. They army will be handling his medical bills and he remains on active duty. This request is to help Ezra with his daily life expenses, as well as his family, with expenses that may not be covered, such as travel, food, and living expenses as they (his mother, stepfather, brothers, and grandmother) will be his support system during his recovery.  His mother will soon run out of vacation and sick leave and may have to leave her job in Santa Fe to be with him on his road to recovery.   His mother is Angela Hasted, and she is accepting funds for his campaign.