Thomas Henderson

Thomas Henderson grew up in Kaufman, Texas, with plans to become an Emergency Medical Technician. Shortly after he began paramedic school, Texas changed the minimum age requirement for EMTs to 20 years old, which left a gap in Thomas’s plan. Rather than sit idly by and wait for the next opportunity, Henderson took matters into his own hands, joining the U.S. Navy in July 2008.

First stationed in North Carolina, Henderson was deployed as a Navy Corpsman to Afghanistan in 2010. There, he worked specifically as a Field Medical Technician until he tragically lost a leg in the line of duty and was medically retired in September 2012. Despite the obvious sacrifices that came with serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, Thomas says he was positively impacted in so many ways. Among many other things, being a Navy Corpsman taught him the valuable skill of perseverance, as well as how to adapt to big changes in life.

Henderson, like most veterans, sites the camaraderie between the servicemen and women as the number one thing he misses from his years in the Navy. “The camaraderie is comforting,” he remembers, “because you get to go through [military life] with people.”

Thomas says that now his hope is for a “return of common sense and common decency” among Americans. When talking to veterans, Henderson reminds us that it is ok to ask questions, but do so respectfully. The majority of our servicemen and women have experienced a lot, and most of the time they’re more than happy to visit with others about curiosities surrounding military life. “But don’t be insensitive,” he encourages. “It’s not that hard to be nice.”

While his years of service were invaluable toward making Thomas Henderson into the man he is today, he is still not finished learning and growing. A resident of Forney since 2014, Thomas and his wife Ashtian are happily raising their four- and one-year-olds here. But while busy with family life, Thomas is also pursuing a Bachelors degree in Bioengineering with hopes of moving on to get his Masters in Prosthetics and Orthotics next.