MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- "I asked my senior drill instructor three questions before I made the phone call.
'Is there something wrong with my brother?'
'Yes.'
'Is he dead?'
'No.'
I forced down tears and asked if his body was still intact ... he told me he didn't know and that we would find that out today."
Days before Pfc. Ryan Rice went through the Crucible, an essential training aspect of recruit training, he and his senior drill instructor, Staff Sgt. Jorge Melendez, received word that Rice's fraternal twin brother had been involved in a land mine explosion while in Iraq and was injured in the midst of the explosion.
His brother had his left leg amputated 9 inches below the knee and received pieces of shrapnel to his left eye and right arm.
"I cried," Ryan said with a choked voice. "I cried and I prayed."
Ryan's brother, Lance Cpl. Aaron Rice, a reserve artilleryman, had gone through recruit training a year earlier than him and graduated in April 2004. Aaron enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves with the military occupational specialty of field artillery and was stationed in Mississippi with a reserve unit.
The unit was slated to deploy in January, the same month in which Ryan would be shipped off to recruit training.
"We didn't join together because we were in different states of mind," said Aaron.
"I told him that if he wanted to go ... just go, and I would decide want I wanted to do later," agreed Ryan.
The twins were in college when Aaron chose to enlist in the Marine Corps.
"Before I left, I told [Ryan] that he would want to do the same thing as me," Aaron joked lightly.
Weeks after Aaron graduated from Marine Combat Training and his military occupational specialty school, his unit was slated to deploy to Iraq.
Aaron was sent to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., for six weeks of training and from there, was shipped off to Iraq March 2. Sixteen days after his arrival in Iraq, Aaron experienced combat action from an enemy land mine.
"There was a lot of activity all morning," Aaron explained. "Kilo Company had gotten mortared early."
Ryan's eyes watered as he listened closely to his brother's story.
"Our unit went on a Personal Security Detail with the battalion sergeant major and the executive officer. We drove off the road and tried to stay in each vehicle's tracks. I was the driver of my vehicle, and somehow, we got slightly off of the tracks in front of us."
Aaron held his breath and shook nervously as he continued with his story.
"There was no warning ... we heard a giant 'boom!' and the next thing I remember was that I was on the ground. My first instinct was to check my legs."
"When I looked down, my left boot was in my lap and I thought, 'Oh Lord, please let me keep at least one of my legs.' I looked to my right and saw my right leg underneath the vehicle."
Aaron explained that the mine hit directly under the vehicle's front driver side tire.
"I heard my platoon sergeant yell, 'Incoming!' and then another sergeant yelled, 'Rice is hit, Rice is hit.' As soon as the sergeant said I was hit, Lance Cpl. Corbin, I thank God for him everyday, reached under my arms and grabbed me. He pulled me from under the vehicle."
Aaron said that his fellow Marines had already cleared a building and provided security for it.
"I really appreciate how quickly the unit responded and radioed for a [Medical evacuation]."
On morphine and other drugs to keep the pain down, Aaron did not panic and remained calm through his situation.
"Some Marines were even more upset than I was," Aaron said. "I was calming the Marines down despite my injuries."
Aaron was airlifted to a nearby aid station and then back to the United States. Aaron woke up in the Intensive Care Unit of the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md. His recovery was seemingly quick; he was out of the Intensive Care Unit after only four days.
"I did not want to become dependent on anything," Aaron said. "I asked the nurse to take me off of the morphine drop a day after they put it in me."
After his fourth day in ICU, Aaron's brother Ryan called him.
"When Aaron picked up the phone, he sounded great, like nothing happened to him at all," Ryan said. "We laughed and then I started to wonder why I had gotten the opportunity to call him."
"I asked him if something was wrong and he said in a matter-of-factly manner, 'Oh I just got my leg blown off when I was in Iraq.'"
Ryan said he did not know what to think.
"[Aaron] was so blunt. I couldn't tell if he was serious or not."
When Ryan finally realized his brother was serious, he said he was relieved to even know that his brother was still alive.
"I don't know what I would do without him," Ryan managed to say through his tears. "I prayed that I would see him soon."
Ryan completed the Crucible and recruit training with his brother's well-being constantly on his mind. His family encouraged him to complete recruit training and not come home on emergency leave.
"I wanted to quit and just go home to be with my brother, but I couldn't. I knew I had to finish [recruit training] so that I could become a Marine," Ryan said with a choked voice. "I knew I wanted to be with my brother."
Approximately three weeks later, Ryan's prayers were answered. He and Aaron met back up where it all began for the both of them... on the Peatross Parade Deck of Parris Island April 8, for Ryan's graduation from recruit to Marine.
"This is the best day our family has ever had," said Randy Rice, Ryan and Aaron's father. "I cannot say enough good things about the Marine Corps and how well Aaron has been treated by the Corps ... I'm glad both of my sons have made the decision to join. I know they will be taken care of."
The twins are to be stationed together in the same Marine Corps Reserve unit in Mississippi, where Aaron will continue his reserve duty status.