Former US Marine Kirstie Ennis is one of the most powerful and inspiring women in the world who did not stop living her life or following her passion, even after losing one leg in a helicopter crash during a combat mission in Afghanistan.
Kirstie is a stubborn as well as strong-willed woman who climbed the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent, with the help of an artificial leg.
She believes she inherited the qualities of a brave woman who never gives up from her parents, father Geoff Ennis, and mother Cathie Ennis, who were US Marines.
When she was in the hospital, feeling vulnerable about losing her left leg as well as her years of military career, she just wanted a way out as she could not see any point in living.
However, her parents told her that her life had not ended yet, and she could not just let her enemy win by stop living.
Many years after the tragic incident, she looked back to those times and appreciated her parents’ support, saying, “They were superheroes in my eyes,” as without their help, her achievements would not have been possible.
Kirstie Ennis’s great aunt Lydia, who was in World War II, inspired her to become a Marine
In the recent YouTube video, “U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Kirstie Ennis – The Wounds of War,” uploaded on May 26, 2024, Kirstie Ennis shares her life’s tragic yet inspiring story among people.
In the video, she revealed that her great-aunt Lydia was one of the first female active Marines during World War II.
The video’s comment section was filled with people who were inspired by her and called her their hero.
When her parents told her about her great-aunt, she just wanted to be like her and make her proud.
Except for her great aunt, her own parents were also the inspiration for her Marine career.
As she stated, watching her parents go to work early in the morning and seeing them marching in the field made her want to join the Marine Corps.
Following her passion, Kirstie Ennis joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17, with the help of her Marine parents, as she was underage.
After joining the military, her first job was as a Helicopter Mechanic, where she was responsible for work such as airframe mechanic and door gunner on the CH-53 heavy-lift transport helicopters.
After serving for 6 years in the Marines, Kirstie was deployed twice to Afghanistan.
During her second deployment in June 2012, she got into a helicopter accident while serving as the helicopter door gunner. In that tragic accident, she lost her left leg, which completely turned her life in a different direction.
After her military career ended in 2014, she started working as a stuntwoman in major motion pictures.
Further, despite her leg amputation, she participated in various adaptive sports, such as skating and climbing.
Later, she started doing charity work and established the Kirstie Ennis Foundation to serve veterans.
Additional Information
- Kirstie Ennis was born to American parents on January 25, 1991, in Pensacola, Florida. She is currently 33 years old, and her horoscope sign is Aquarius.
- Her father, Geoff Ennis, joined the Marine Corps out of Bar Beach, Florida, at the age of 18. As per Kirstie, her father told her mother he would never marry a female Marine, which made her mother join the military.
- Kirstie Ennis does not have a husband or children. She has a younger sister named Kaylee with whom she shares a very close bond.
- In 2019, Kirstie climbed Mount Everest, and when she was just 200 meters from the peak, she got back after her team ran out of Oxygen. Further, in 2017, she successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia.
