ABOUT JOSH:
Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Misiewicz has lived all his 23 years in La Grange, attending Ogden Avenue School, Park Junior High and Lyons Township High School where he graduated in 2006. Joining the Marines fulfilled his lifelong passion to be the best of the best.
In high school, Josh was an Illinois State Hockey League All-Star, and the league’s top scorer. He played for St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota while earning a two-year associates’ degree in the fall of 2009.
He enlisted in the Marines in March, 2010, choosing the challenge of the infantry and becoming a squad leader after completing basic training.
He was deployed to Afghanistan last March with the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment for Operation Enduring Freedom. It was a grueling mission to push the remaining Taliban out of their stronghold of the region, with the Marines living in a tent camp in 130-degree temperatures and carrying heavy gear on foot patrol.
In April, a Department of Defense photographer captured a picture of Josh giving a high-five to an Afghan child. The image was posted online and seen around the world as a demonstration of American good will toward the Afghan people.
On July 20th Josh was on patrol in the desert of Helmand province and stepped on a buried improvised explosive device. His family credits a medic who was walking directly behind him for saving his life.
Josh is currently living in an apartment at the wounded warrior barracks at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and working hard at rehabilitation. He has already had numerous surgeries and faces more in the future, but he and his family are inspired by the other Marines all around him -- and Josh is having the same effect on others.
His parents, Bill and Nancy, are taking turns staying in the apartment with him for now. The rest of his family was able to join him last month when he was awarded the Purple Heart by Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos in Bethesda.
Josh is the oldest of four. Brother Will is a senior at Illinois State University; sister Alyce is a junior at Western Michigan University, and brother Adam is a senior at Lyons Township.
