The rocket-propelled grenade that exploded about 13 inches from Spc. Kevin Spangler's face shortened his Army career.

But the blast that almost killed the 21-year-old soldier, leaving him deaf in his left ear, failed to make a dent in his cheerful spirit or vibrant sense of humor.

An Alaska native who settled in Shelbyville after marrying an Army buddy's sister, Spangler received a medical discharge in June.

Spangler, now 23, considered staying in the Army but decided to return to civilian life because his handicap might put other soldiers in danger.

"I didn't want to be a liability," said Spangler, now 23. "If there was another attack, and I didn't hear something, someone might be hurt because I didn't hear."

Spangler had been in Iraq just six weeks when an insurgent took aim at him from a nearby rooftop.

A member of 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Spangler was serving as top gunner on a Humvee in a small town northwest of Baghdad on Feb. 6, 2006.

Just two days earlier, a close friend of his, a 34-year-old former sailor, had been killed by a roadside bomb while his platoon was out on patrol. On that day, Spangler had remained back at the Forward Operating Base, because it was his day of rest.

Soldiers returned to the area, to try to glean information about the bombing from area residents.

"Our tank platoon was integrated with an infantry platoon," Spangler recalled. "We were to set up an outer cordon in the area, while the infantrymen went door-to-door."

Spangler's convoy consisted of his Humvee, two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an Abrams tank.

"At 2 p.m., we were sitting there. We were an outer cordon of support for the infantry platoon, in case something happened we could rush over to them."

It was 60 degrees and sunny, a perfect day for someone wearing about 50 pounds of protective gear.

"It seemed like a day at the beach almost," Spangler recalled.

Spc. Spangler was sitting on top of the Humvee, manning the M-240 machine gun.

"I started noticing that a lot of the people in the market area near us were suddenly moving away from all of our vehicles," Spangler said.

While Spc. Spangler eyed a man on a bicycle carrying a spool of wire, an insurgent on a nearby rooftop took aim with his grenade launcher.

"The next thing I knew an explosion happened right next to me and knocked me right next to the turret," Spangler recalled. "I saw the blast. I kind of heard it, but not really heard it. It knocked me out, but I was still reacting to everything."

The blast blew a hole in his eardrum, while pieces of shrapnel sliced off the lower half of his ear, cut open his shoulder and pierced his lungs and spleen.

The grenade dropped down into the front passenger seat, destroying the vehicle's radios between the driver and passenger seats. The radios shielded the driver from injury. The platoon's lieutenant, who normally rode in that front seat, had left the vehicle to walk door-to-door with the infantry.

"The next thing I remember I opened my eyes, and I was on the floor of the Humvee, between the back two passenger seats, kind of slumped over. I was in an awkward position. First I thought my arm was gone. There was so much pain in my shoulder. There was so much blood all around. I moved my hand;-;that was the biggest relief.

He told the driver his arm hurt, he needed the medic he couldn't hear too well.

"I was yelling really loud in his ear, and he was right there."

Sitting on a bench in a tank en route to a field hospital, Spc. Spangler thought: I can't believe this is happening to me.

"You think it would happen to someone else and not yourself," he said.

He believes a recently issued piece of Kevlar protective gear, which covered his shoulders and upper arms, probably saved his arm.

"When I got out of the Humvee, the shoulder piece was dangling," Spangler said. "I could see it was kind of chewed up."

"People would look at me."

Before undergoing surgeries to rebuild his ear at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Spc. Spangler had a little fun walking around in public with his strange-looking half-an-ear.

"It was pretty common, people would look at me," Spangler recalled. "But after awhile, I was fine with it. I knew what I had been through, and if people wanted to look at me like I'm some weird freak show, that was OK."

While older people might whisper and point at the wounded ear, young children openly stared.

"There was a little kid at Wal-Mart who couldn't stop looking at it," Spangler said.

"As I walked by him, I kept turning my head, so he would see it better."

After two reconstructive operations were performed, his ear appears almost normal. As a result of shoulder surgery and therapy, his shoulder have returned nearly to full strength.

"I can't hang off the monkey bars," Spangler said. "It starts hurting after a second or so. Other than that, I pretty much have all movement back in it."

Spangler, who is completing a welding program in Decatur this month, is hopeful about his future. He does not focus on what he lost in the war.

"I try not to let it get me down. There is no point in getting all depressed about it.

You try to move on. Why not try to succeed, instead of sitting there and feeling sorry for yourself?"

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.