Tra' Vendela has a lot going on right now.

He just found out that he and his wife, the former Tiffany Black of Pavillion, will be parents for the first time in June.

He's the assistant offensive coordinator for the Cheyenne Central Indians, who face Sheridan in the Class 4A state championship football game in Laramie on Saturday afternoon.

He finished building his six-foot fence at his brand-new home.

And on Wednesday, he took the time to tell his story -- not because it's unique, but because it's "one of thousands guys just like me could tell you" -- at the Veterans Day commemoration in the chapel at the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery in Evansville.

After the invocation and the posting of the colors and the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, after words from Casper Police Department captain and Iraq war veteran Chris Walsh and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, retired Sgt. 1st Class Vendela rolled to the front of the room, flipped the switch on his cordless microphone, and began talking.

Thirty minutes later, those in the capacity crowd had not uttered a sound and had barely taken a breath.

Vendela talked of having three Division I football scholarship offers waiting as he was about to graduate from high school in Bountiful, Utah. Born in Sheridan and living in Gillette as a child, he moved frequently with his father's coal mining work, but always thought of his father's 29 years in the Wyoming National Guard as the constant in his life.

"I told my dad I wanted to serve the night before Texas Tech wanted to know if I was taking the scholarship," he said. "I wanted to be a ground pounder. I wanted to enlist and do everything the hard way."

Between his second and third tours in Iraq, Vendela met his cousin's roommate, Black, a high school hurdler finishing her undergraduate exercise and sports science degree at the University of Wyoming.

On his third tour, in February 2007, his Humvee was the lead in a convoy of 300 units. He saw what looked like a refrigerator buried in the road ahead, and instructed his driver to drive over it, instead of around it, so that no other units would be hit.

Three hundred pounds of molten copper and a Humvee full of American soldiers is not a good combination.

Vendela had two above-the-knee amputations, including one actually performed by guys in his unit so they could get him out of the Humvee; a fractured pelvis that opened to 90 degrees; a left elbow that snapped like a pencil; a jaw fracture ("it was in 400 pieces"); and a C3 and C4 spine fracture that could have left him a quadriplegic.

A medic on site released pressure from his ballooning right arm, which will enable him to hold his son or daughter in June.

He died -- and was resuscitated -- three times, twice in the field and once at the base while he was being readied for transport to Germany.

After a month at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., he was conscious enough to see Tiffany walk in the room.

"When she's really happy, her whole face smiles," he said, "and she does this goofy penguin walk. She walked in like that, and that is the moment I knew I wanted to start inspiring people."

At Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, he received a Purple Heart from Gen. Pete Schoomaker, who played football at the University of Wyoming.

He told his physical therapist and prosthetist that he wanted prosthetic legs right away.

"I said I had a wedding coming up and I was going to stand at my wedding. They told me I could have them, but I'd never be able to use them. But if I wanted them so I could wear pants, they'd make them for me," he said.

Tiffany had just completed her residency in physical therapy and helped Tra' at home.

And on their wedding day, May 24, 2008, he stood up to kiss her, danced with her twice at the reception, and stood up to smash cake in her face.

Now, he wears his legs three or four times a week, but is as comfortable without them.

Working for himself to benefit others, he owns Victory Consulting and is doing public speaking and offering leadership and supervisory skills training.

He volunteers as a football coach and with Central's JROTC program.

"I tell them every day that the military is an honorable and important choice to make," he said. "There is nothing in my life that I regret. Life is good as long as you're living it."

Vendela can be reached at (307) 760-4532 or travee25@yahoo.com

Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at (307) 266-0520 or sallyann.shurmur@trib.com. Read Sal's blog at tribtown.trib.com/Sal/blog and follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WYOSAS

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