San Antonio – UPDATED: The stolen pickup was found by San Antonio police and returned to the couple. Learn more about it here.
The wife of a wounded warrior who is recovering from an IED accident that happened in Afghanistan is asking the thieves responsible for stealing their truck to return her husband’s Purple Heart.
Asia Davis moved from Georgia to be in San Antonio with her husband, Ryan Davis.
Ryan, a U.S. Army veteran, is recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center.
“I’ve cried all day long,” Asia Davis said. “It makes me very angry. Everything inside the truck, I would love to get back.”
Davis has been living in a hotel and Airbnb since August, which is when her husband was injured.
“He was flown straight from Afghanistan,” Asia Davis said. “He got here and has been here now for three and a half months trying to recover. He got into an accident where he was injured by an IED that went off and blew up his grenade that was on his hip.”
She said it is a miracle Ryan is still alive.
“He lost his right leg, right hip, left leg, and his right arm, and he doesn’t have his pelvis either on the right side,” Asia Davis said. “He got 282 units of blood. He has had over 28 surgeries.”
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Because of the accident, Ryan Davis, who has served his country for eight years in the Army, was awarded a Purple Heart and the American flag on the battlefield that day. The family has also received support in other areas to get by during his recovery.
“We have had a lot of foundations giving us money and things to help him in the future,” Davis said. “We had foundations grant us a truck, and we just recently got that truck, which was brand new. We were going to have it adapted for him once he is able to drive.”
The truck, a 2019 F-150 Maroon 4X4, had just been loaded for the Davis family’s move from the Airbnb to their new home at Fort Sam Houston. The truck was stolen overnight from the Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Broadway Street near Loop 410.
“It was locked. They went to go -- I am thinking -- just to steal the stuff inside the vehicle, and they went in and started it right up,” Asia Davis said. “It was one of those spare keys in the glove box."
There were important things inside the truck that Asia Davis wants back more than the truck itself.
“Anybody who stole the truck, I will give it to you for Christmas,” Asia Davis said. “Merry Christmas, but the stuff inside, we want it back. All of my paperwork, because I have MS, was inside. All of his paperwork from Afghanistan and here at BAMC, our child’s medicine, family photos. Like, we just want it back. You are not even going to use any of that stuff. You are just going to throw it away. Just send the stuff back to the address you see on the medical documents.”
She said she can replace some of the things, but some items won’t hold the same sentimental value.
“Toys, I can replace that. Towels, I can replace that. Toilet paper, I can replace," Asia Davis said. "But the Purple Heart that was pinned on him on the battlefield, the flag that was on his kit, that is not replaceable. I can go and buy an American flag, but that is not the flag that was out on the battlefield. All of the coins he got from all of the colonels and command sergeant majors, I don’t know if we will be able to receive those back, just because so many people came to visit, and those memories were given to us. We had about 40 or 50 coins given to us.”
Asia Davis said her husband is just as devastated.
“He’s really upset,” she said. “He says they are all materialistic things, which they are, but he just wishes they would give back what he worked so hard and fought for, for our freedom.”
San Antonio police are investigating the vehicle theft.
Davis is asking anyone with any information about the truck, or more importantly, the things inside of the truck, to call authorities.
“The next step is to pray and have a good heart, and they could bring back the stuff,” Davis said. “That is what I am praying for.”
