Selma’s American Legion Post 20 will play host to an American hero Thursday, when Sgt. Noah Galloway, retired, visits.

Galloway, 28, is a native of Birmingham and is a double amputee, suffering severe injuries during an improvised explosive device attack Dec. 19, 2005 in Yusafiah, Iraq.

Galloway will be the Legion’s guest speaker for their regular meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 10 at 6:15 p.m.

After the attack and immediate medical attention, Galloway was transported to Germany to receive medical treatment. After being unconscious for five days, Galloway woke up late in the evening on Christmas Eve to find out he had lost two of his limbs and also sustained several injuries to his remaining leg and jaw.

After struggling through both physical and emotional injuries, Galloway turned his energy on his physical recovery, relying on the support of his fellow injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. as inspiration.

“All of us were raised in different towns with different families, but we were all servicemen and servicewomen who put our all into what we did and now each of us faced a different life ahead than the one we left before we went to combat,” Galloway said in a release previewing his Selma visit. “Whether it was a spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, blindness, loss of a limb or some other kind of injury, we were all trying to find out who we were now that we were out in our communities with our new bodies, new mindsets and new lives.”

Since 2006, Galloway has been involved with Lakeshore Foundation, a Birmingham-based nonprofit organization, dedicated to enabling people with physical disability and chronic health conditions to lead healthy, active and independent lifestyles through physical activity, sport, recreation and research.

Galloway is the spokesperson for Lakeshore Foundation’s Lima Foxtrot programs for injured military.

Galloway is an active cyclist and has recently begun golfing and running again.

Galloway married his wife, Tracy, in 2007 and he has a 6-year-old son, Colston, from a previous marriage, a 3-year-old son, Jack, and a 1-year-old daughter Rian. He and his family reside in Alabaster.