Still Standing: The Story of SSG John Kriesel, 2018 Updated Edition

by Jim Kosmo, John Kriesel

When SSG John Kriesel lost his legs and two buddies in a roadside bomb explosion, no one expected him to survive. He died three times on the operating table. Miracles, a lot of miracles, starting with a few grunts who refused to let him die in Iraq, ripped the young warrior from the grip of death and sent him on to four hospitals, thirty-five surgeries, and months of recovery and rehabilitation. Medical miracles put his body back together, but it was an incredible confluence of angels at every step along the way that breathed life into his shattered body. This is not just another war story. This is the story of an ordinary young man who overcame extraordinary challenges with a lot of help from others, including many strangers and he emerged stronger and more in love with his country, his children, and ultimately, his own life. For more information, please visit www.stillstandingstory.com

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2018

About the author

Captain Jim Kosmo is a national award-winning journalist and author, a US Coast Guard-licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot, and former partner of Padelford Riverboat Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. Before joining the family riverboat business, he was a newspaper editor in Nevada and Minnesota and a corporate public relations executive in Minnesota and Illinois.
Kosmo’s newest book, Monsters in the Hallway, is an award-winning mystery novel based largely on his childhood in Eau Claire, WI. His previous book, Still Standing: The Story of Staff Sergeant John Kriesel, is a nonfiction account of a soldier who lost his legs and two buddies in an IED explosion near Fallujah, Iraq. The best-selling motivational book won eight national book awards and is in its eleventh printing.
Kosmo served as president of the Rotary Club of St. Paul (2013-14), founded the Minnesota Valley Branch YMCA, was chair of the Rivers Region of the Passenger Vessel Association, and was mayor of the city of Bayport, MN. He also is business representative on the Minnesota National Guard Senior Advisory Task Force and sits on several health care and education boards.
Kosmo and wife Shelley have a blended family with eight adult children and twelve grandchildren.

Reviews

[Phil Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story we all should read. Kriesel brings us along to his training, deployment, savage explosion, and unbelievable efforts of his mates/medics/doctors/nurses/therapists/family & friends in his amazing journey back from his horrific wounds.

[Joshua Bowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Kriesel and his co-author do a terrific job in relating what a deployment to Iraq was like for an infantryman in 2006, and also what it's like to get hit by a roadside bomb. My favorite part of the book, is where several of his Army buddies give their own accounts of what happened that day, and in the following days while John lay unconscious in a various military field hospitals. The rest of the book describes in detail what it's like to lose friends, to recover from the traumatic wounds of a bomb, and to live a new life using prosthetic legs. It is very moving, a great book.

[Darci Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story telling

I wanted to read this book after listening to John Kriesel on the power trip morning show on KFAN radio every Tuesday morning and periodically hearing about the book. The book tells the story of everything that happened to John in Iraq, but it is more so about how he reacted to and overran those things

[karla mccamish · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is Real not a movie

For the first time I could realize what a year in war could feel like. My husband spent a tour in Vietnam and I couldn't not imagine the boring, fear, buddies were his life . Fear was there all the time. Seeing bodies damaged and losing buddies daily but the strength these guys carry is war. Thank you!!