Gomez, 23, was on his second tour of duty with the Marines in Iraq when an explosive device blasted apart the truck he was driving in a nighttime convoy near Ramadi in April 2005.

"All of a sudden there was this big bang," he recalled. "I was really messed up — a piece of shrapnel hit me right next to the ear.

"I was bleeding like crazy. They took me to the base. I passed out and was in a coma two weeks."

When Gomez reached Palo Alto — home to one of the VA's four brain injury centers — he was unable to walk or talk. Now, after three years of rigorous therapy, he's able to drive himself to a community college and has regained most movement, although his right arm remains paralyzed.

His regimen has included speech therapy, aquatic therapy and, more recently, hippotherapy — riding horses at an equine center in Woodside, Calif.

"I want to do a lot of things I still can't do," he said. "I see a lot of people who don't want to work, who don't do anything. That gets me upset. They have every limb in their body they can use. Now I see what I have — I'm thankful for what I have."