Last July, just over a year ago, Green Beret Tim Brumit made the wrong call.

Thinking he saw a drowning girl in stormy seas a short distance from his boat, he dove into the choppy surf, but misjudged the depth—and instantly broke his neck. The missing girl was later found safe on shore.

Now paralyzed from the chest down, Sergeant First Class Brumit is being forced to endure a whole new kind of hardship.

The U.S. Army just informed him that it judged his actions on that July night reckless due to alcohol and drugs. Now the veteran of hundreds of raids and deadly firefights in eight combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq is fighting to save his military career. He has roughly three weeks to get the Army’s decision overturned or face a possible “other-than-honorable” discharge from service and possible loss of his military medical care.

Speaking exclusively to The Daily Beast, the 33-year-old Brumit admits the facts on the surface are against him. He had 0.1 percent blood alcohol in his system at the time of the injury, though that wasn’t illegal because he wasn’t driving, just sitting on a boat with friends.

Read More- The Daily Beast

Image courtesy of Randy Brumit via Daily Beast