CONFIRMED:

“If you don’t have time to do it right when will you ever have time to do it over?” was the theme 14 year-old Aaron Mankin delivered to his 1997 graduating class of Elmwood Jr. High in Rogers, Arkansas. He had received that advice from his grandfather, a Navy veteran of WWII, and Mankin consistently followed it.

Born in 1982 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Mankin would later become the 1999 Arkansas State Debate Champion at the age of 17. The honor included multiple awards for public speaking and eventually Mankin became the first student in the history of Arkansas high school forensics to qualify for national-level debate competitions. As a senior his six entries won five first place awards in the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media competition. In 2000, Mankin again applied his grandfather’s advice by graduating with Honors from Rogers High School.

Following graduation he soon became the Associate Minister of Student Ministries at a local Baptist church in Rogers. At nineteen he personally raised funds to travel to China where he engaged in missionary efforts. Among other tasks, Mankin backpacked Bibles into remote villages nestled in the Jade Dragon Mts. along the Yangtze River. In a period of two weeks, he covered a total distance of 55 miles on foot.

At age 20 Mankin began teaching as a substitute in the Bentonville, Arkansas public school district at the elementary and junior high levels. Soon after, he joined the United States Marine Corps. He reported for Boot Camp in San Diego, California at the age of 21.

Upon completion of training in Public Affairs, Mankin’s writings were frequently published in Marine Corps periodicals. In February 2005 he was deployed to Iraq with the II Marine Expeditionary Force. Stationed in Fallujah, Mankin served in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a Combat Correspondent.

In May 2005, Corporal Mankin was assigned to Operation Matador, an eleven-day mission intended to interrupt the flow of militant insurgents along the Syrian border in Northern Iraq. On the seventh day of the campaign, near Ubadi in the Al Qaim province, Corporal Mankin was severely wounded when an IED destroyed his 26-ton AAV fatally wounding six Marines. He was immediately transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas where he continues treatment for wounds received in that attack. While undergoing daily physical therapy, and now just short of forty surgeries, Corporal Mankin was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy Achievement Medal with Valor. He has remained active at the hospital by serving as the Patient Media Liaison for the Public Affairs Office at BAMC.

Mankin was recently chosen as the first participant in a new concept project called ‘Operation Mend’. The undertaking is a cooperative venture involving the Katz Family Foundation, UCLA Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center. The sole mission of ‘Operation Mend’ is providing world-class restorative surgical procedures to wounded warriors who have suffered severe disfiguring injuries.

Still following his grandfather’s advice, in February 2006, Corporal Mankin married Virginia native and fellow Marine Lance Corporal Diana Kavanek. One year later they became the proud parents of Madeline Paige Mankin. Mankin has been featured on programs and publications such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and Lou Dobbs Tonight, ABC World News with Tom Woodruff, Good Morning America, The Don Imus Show, the Hugh Hewitt Show, Paul Harvey News, National Public Radio, Best Life Magazine and others. He was the first to be treated under a collaborative effort between BAMC and the Medical Center at UCLA. It is Corporal Mankin’s desire to eventually complete his college studies, return to Arkansas, and resume teaching because he wants to “…take time to do it right…”.