MCB HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- A Hawaii Marine is recovering from a motorcycle accident on the H-3 highway that left him permanently disfigured, but alive nonetheless.
Lance Cpl. John O. Jolley, formerly an armory custodian with Echo Co., 2nd Bn., 3rd Marine Regiment, is on convalescent leave and said he feels lucky to be alive after his crash Aug. 7.
Jolley said he was heading out to Kailua to see a friend at about 5:30 p.m.
As he went out the front gate of MCB Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, he looked around to see where his buddy was. When he looked back to the front, he was close to the right side of the road, where he got into some gravel.
His bike went down.
"I remember seeing the sky, then the road, then the sky, road, sky, road, and when I stopped, I was sitting up," he said. "I was looking at my bike, and my bike was looking at me.
"I remember feeling a lot of pain in my ankle. I noticed the tip of my shoe was missing and bone was sticking out of where my toes used to be, but most of the pain was in my ankle."
Jolley's left ankle was severely broken, and repairs required eight pins and a plate. His left foot was pinned under the motorcycle as it made contact with the pavement, and half of his big toe and the two center toes were severed.
Other injuries included a cracked rib, cracked shoulder, and a bad case of road rash.
"There were a bunch of people at the scene all of the sudden, and they were all trying to help in their own way," he remembered. "An ambulance arrived pretty quick, and since they were treating me as a trauma patient, they took me to Queens Medical Center."
The helmet Jolley was wearing shows damage that a human skull could not have endured. His motorcycle racing gloves also sustained scrapes his knuckles would not have withstood.
Almost an eighth of an inch of the plastic wore off of his watch, which was protected until the leather on his gloves wore through.
"The helmet and the gloves saved my life, I think, and I wish I would have had my jacket and a pair of boots on," he said. "I was going to buy a set of boots on the 15th.
"My buddy just bought a set, and he said I could borrow them anytime. Since they were new, I wanted to let him break them in. Now, we both wish that I would have borrowed them."
An experienced rider, Jolley wears all of the required safety equipment, and even had the required above-the-ankle shoes specified in the MCB Hawaii base order. He attended the motorcycle rider safety course here in Hawaii, and is very familiar with the roads on Oahu.
He just had an accident.
Left behind when his battalion deployed to Okinawa for the Unit Deployment Program, Jolley is now part of India Co., 3rd Bn., 3rd Marine Regiment.
"I've lived and worked with those guys for three years, and now they're over there and I'm back here," he said. "Now I'll probably be stuck picking up trash with a pick on the bottom of my crutches."
Jolley spent nine days in the hospital and racked up a bill of more than $39,000. He had surgery on his ankle, but the doctors were unable to reattach his toes.
Awaiting the results of a medical board now, Jolley is unsure of his future in the Marine Corps.
"The doctors haven't really given me a clear answer, yet, on the extent of the injury," he explained. "Hopefully I'll be able to do a lateral move into another MOS and stay in the Marine Corps."
While he may not be able to serve in a Marine Corps infantry battalion, his injuries were not fatal, and he said he and his family are happy about that.
"He's very fortunate he had the proper safety gear on when he crashed," said Bo Irvine, director of the Base Safety Center, MCB Hawaii. "There are two types of motorcyclists in the world: those who have fallen, and those who are going to fall. Having his safety gear on when his time came probably saved this young man's life."