Marine Recovering After Being Run Over By Truck

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado Marine run over by a pickup truck in October will report back to Camp Pendleton in California next week.

Lance Cpl. Marcus Uribe of Littleton says he will be on 6 months limited duty while doctors there evaluate him. His skull was fractured when he was hit by the truck after pushing another man out of the way.

Uribe has been undergoing therapy at Craig Hospital. It is rehabilitation from a traumatic brain injury.

"My thought process is a little slow and I can't really come up with what I need to say right off the bat, but it's getting better," Uribe said.

Better, but Uribe knows he's not the man, nor the Marine he was before Oct. 30. CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh asked him, "Can you remember what happened that night?" Marcus answered, "No, not at all."

According to police, it was 3 a.m. in Surfside Beach, Texas. There was a welcome home party for a Marine buddy. Police say some guys showed up uninvited. There was a confrontation. According to police, Gerald Deluna, 22, pointed his truck at partygoers and hit the gas. Uribe doesn't remember getting hit by the truck, but witnesses tell police he was run over after he pushed another man out of the way.

"I think I did what anyone would have done for their friend or for their loved ones," Uribe said from his Littleton home.

He has a pile of letters hailing him a hero. One from another military man reads, "You survived Afghanistan, you survived an idiot in a truck, and you will make it through this hard time, man."

Uribe admits some anger toward Deluna, but he is looking forward, not back.

"I was blessed with a second chance," he said. "Like my grandpa always told me, 'It's always how you recover' … and given a second chance I can finish out strong and so can he (the driver)."

Deluna remains in jail in Texas.