Air Force Tech Sergeant Israel del Toro wasn't supposed to be here, to tell his story.

A roadside bomb left him with severe external and internal burns.

Doctors gave him little chance of even making it.

"you say people stare at you, and you'd like them to come up and just say 'what happened? I thought about making a t-shirt with a little emblem on front 'don't stare'--and on the back say, 'you can ask'. You know, we're still human. We may not look like what we used to look like. We still feel...we still feel love," says del Toro.

“DT” has had 97 surgeries. He represents a growing number of veterans.

Advances in medicine, make it possible for even the most severely injured, to come home.

But coming home, isn't without its challenges.

DT describes, his darkest hour.

"I never once, my entire time, wished I had died. Not once. But when I saw myself I did.
I was like my god if I think I’m a monster, you know what's my little 3 year old gonna think?
I just didn't want my son to be afraid of me. Almost every guy has a therapist, like an angel.
He said trust me, your son is gonna love you. He's gonna love you. And he came up and gave me a hug. That was the best feeling. He didn't care? He didn't care. He didn't care. He just wanted to see his dad," says del Toro.

His son Israel is now five, and his inspiration for living.

"One of the things I want to do is play catch with my boy," says del Toro.

DT threw out the first pitch at the Sox game Tuesday night.

He says he's amazed by the special things he gets to do.

He's still struck, when people call him "a hero."

"They say thank you. I'll say i was just doing my job. I just don't see myself as a hero. I was just regular guy that loved his job, happened to get hurt, if I could, I’d go back in a heartbeat," says del Toro.