Burns arrived sporting a bandage on his injured heel and leg. A roadside bomb blew up his vehicle shattering five bones in his heel. He seemed surprised shy and overcome at the welcome his family and friends wanted him to enjoy.
"It's a little much, but I'm enjoying it. It's pretty good to be home. I didn't expect any of this. It feels good, I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to be with my family. These guys are really awesome to do this for me, " Joe Burns said.
His family suffered through his deployment, especially when he was wounded just a month and a half after he arrived in Afghanistan. Now they're happy to have him home.
"It was awful. I cried every day. It was really hard," his sister Leigh Burns-Quan said.
"It was terrible. He was doing his job. Thank God for technology, we got to hear from him by satellite phone or the computer, maybe every other day," said his mom, Lori Burns.
Burns is only 20 years old. He was the youngest Corpsman in his deployment. When he arrived in Afghanistan many of his fellow Marines were sick with the flu. They were short of medicine so Burns spent his own money to buy what he needed to treat his men. Congresswoman Jackie Speier will give him the high honor of reading his name into the Congressional record next week.
