(NEXSTAR) - Travis Dodson, a Marine veteran and two-time Paralympic gold medalist, is preparing to represent Team USA in sled hockey in the upcoming games in Milan. Dodson, who survived a grenade explosion in Iraq that resulted in the loss of both legs, has transitioned from a decorated military career to becoming a veteran leader on the national adaptive sports stage. Dodson found sled hockey at age 29 after exploring other adaptive sports, including wheelchair racing and cross-country skiing. His journey into the sport followed a difficult recovery process in which he relied heavily on the support of his family and medical staff to navigate the transition to life as a double amputee. Today, he uses his platform to mentor a younger generation of disabled athletes entering the sport. The life-changing injury occurred during a deployment to Iraq when a hand grenade exploded approximately 1 meter away from Dodson. While Dodson survived, his friend and the unit's radio operator, Daniel Morris, died in the same explosion after being hit by shrapnel. Dodson, who was conscious throughout the incident and its immediate aftermath, recalled looking down to see the extent of his injuries while a corpsman worked to keep him coherent before he was medically evacuated by helicopter. "Just really just being lucky, you know, to have a hand grenade go off probably meter, meter and a half away from you and then to survive that is obviously in and of itself just pretty lucky and amazing. You know, my good friend Morris, he wasn't so lucky. He died during that same explosion," said Dodson recalled. Dodson, who lost both legs in the blast, described the first months of his recovery in the hospital as a period of significant emotional and physical difficulty. He credited his parents, therapists and fellow veterans at the rehabilitation center for preventing him from withdrawing from public life. "When I was first injured, it was tough. I just wanted to go out in public, felt uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable with myself and my body being injured this way," Dodson said. "So if people had just let me go off and stay in my room all day, I probably would have done it. But they were like, 'Nope, you're coming out. You're going to do this.'" Dodson eventually turned toward adaptive sports. He was called up to the national team shortly before the Pyeongchang Paralympics and has remained a roster staple ever since. "Adaptive sports ... kind of really kept me maybe from kind of losing it, honestly," Dodson said. Now 39, Dodson is the oldest member of the current Team USA squad. He noted that the team maintains a highly competitive but close-knit locker room culture. Beyond his personal competition, Dodson focuses on his role as a mentor for children who were born with disabilities or recently injured. He said he hopes to serve as a model for what they can achieve through the sport. "There's a lot of young kids that are the same. Either they were born that way or they've been recently injured, and they're trying sled hockey, and they see us, and that's what they want to aspire to be. So we're trying to help them and kind of help the next younger generation of disabled athletes get to as far as they can," Dodson said. Team USA is currently preparing for the upcoming Paralympic Games in Milan. Dodson said the team is focused on responding to the challenge of other nations attempting to unseat them from their top ranking. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published.