Battlefield Advances

Three out of five soldiers in the Stryker sustained serious injuries, but his were the worst: The blast had shredded both his legs. Within 48 hours, surgeons in Germany amputated his right leg below the knee and his left one at the kneecap. "I don't remember when I realized my legs were gone," says Keeslar today. "All I could think about was starting the recovery process so I could walk again."

A mere four months after the attack, Keeslar is getting his wish. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., he strides around the physical therapy center with barely a hitch in his gait. Beneath baggy sweatpants and jogging shoes, he wears a revolutionary prosthetic device known as a C-Leg, so named because of a computer microprocessor in the knee that makes 50 calculations per second to adapt to a user's gait.

While in previous wars the loss of a leg meant a lifetime of restriction, service members like Keeslar can reclaim their independence thanks to the $50,000 C-Leg, a wonder of titanium, graphite and technology made by Germany's Otto Bock HealthCare. At Walter Reed, technicians programmed his C-Leg's circuitry to keep him stable and upright -- no matter the surface or angle of terrain.

Though Keeslar's recovery seems miraculous, military medical marvels like his C-Leg are becoming increasingly common. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, Americans have suffered more than 3,000 deaths and about 23,000 casualties. But the conflict has produced an unexpected payoff: remarkable advances in treating trauma and injuries. Military doctors and researchers are making impressive gains in healing injured soldiers and rehabilitating them to active lives. And many of these innovations are finding their way to general medical use, aiding civilians as well as troops. Against the backdrop of a divisive war in the Middle East, here are several heartening advances in military medicine that have the power to help us all: