COLUMBUS, Ohio – A wounded veteran from Westerville will be one of the guests in First Lady Michelle Obama’s box for the president’s State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday night.
MORE: The State of the Union Address is scheduled for 9:00 p.m.
Army Staff Sgt. Jason Gibson first met the President in 2012 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where Gibson was recovering from injuries sustained in Afghanistan, according to the White House.
Gibson stepped on a hidden improvised explosive device while on patrol in Kandahar province in 2012.
Gibson wrote a letter in October to thank the President for visiting him as he recuperated and to underscore that “there is life after a traumatic event and good can come of all things,” according to a White House release.
After undergoing more than 20 surgeries, Gibson lost both legs to amputation. Unable to use prosthetics, the White House says, Gibson took up surfing and skiing, completed multiple marathons on a hand cycle, and obtained his pilot’s license.
A non-profit group helped build Gibson and his wife Kara a specially-designed house in Marysville.
The couple’s first child, a baby girl named Quinn Leona Gibson, was born on Nov. 21, 2014.
Among others invited by the president to attend the speech: Alan Gross and his wife, Judy. Gross recently returned home after spending five years in a Cuban prison.
It’s become tradition for presidents to invite special guests whose stories highlight an issue or public policy.
This year’s group also includes astronaut Scott Kelly, the president and CEO of CVS Health and seven other people, in addition to Gibson, who wrote letters to Obama.