Frank Vargas has survived rocket fire in Afghanistan.
He’s been stitched back together more than once and been awarded three Purple Heart medals by the U.S. Army.
Recovery has been a grueling, never-ending process, and now he wants to use his education to help his fellow combat veterans.
This week, Vargas is graduating with honors from Tyler Junior College with a general studies degree.
In January, he will begin nursing school with an eye toward earning a Master of Science in Nursing and eventually becoming a nurse practitioner at the Veterans Administration to work with mental health issues and combat injuries.
A native of Arizona, Vargas first joined the Army after graduating high school in 1987. He returned home after Operation Desert Storm and went to Arizona State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in business. Afterward, he got married, had kids and started working his way up the management ranks in a bank.
“On Sept. 11, 2001, I spent the day trying to figure out how I was going to tell my wife that I wanted to leave banking to go and serve my country,” Vargas said.
Mrs. Vargas approved, so at age 29, Vargas reenlisted, and they spent the next several years as a military family, relocating to Arizona and Washington for officer candidate school, airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia, and ultimately to Florida for Explosive Ordnance Disposal school.
He saw his first action in Afghanistan, teaching Afghani soldiers to be proficient in combat. He deployed once more, as a team leader from 2010 to 2011.
In October 2011, he was teaching route clearance and got hit with a daisy chain of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) which resulted in a significant brain trauma and other massive injuries.
Vargas spent the next few years in occupational and physical therapy — five times a day for five days a week — first at a military hospital in Germany and then back home at the wounded warrior center at Fort Bliss, Texas.
“They basically told me I was incapable of learning again and that I should just go and be retired.”
That news didn’t sit well with Vargas, who was far from ready to be sent out to pasture. So, he relocated his family to Tyler in 2020.
“I started taking classes at TJC because it really ticked me off that someone told me that I could never learn again,” he said.
“After a while, I realized I was here for a reason. Everyone was helpful. It takes a long time to recover because concussions are hard to get over. If you look at me, you’d think, ‘This guy’s normal.’ But I would get lost in my car for three or four hours at a time because I couldn’t remember what I was doing or where I was going. I would just sit there and start crying. I fell on campus probably eight times, because sometimes my brain wouldn’t talk to my legs.
“TJC is my favorite college ever. If I were to name the top three things about TJC, I would say it’s the professors, the cost, and the environment. That would be my big three. Also, the acceptance of people with disabilities.”
He also hasn’t ruled out returning as a professor someday.
“When I get done working with the VA, I’ve thought that I might like to come back here and teach in the nursing program someday,” he said. “That would be amazing.”