up bilingual; his mother is from El Salvador. Its J.R.

s intriguing and inspiring personal story of survival that immediately draws people to himthat and his infectious personality, of course. Inspired by the commercials on TV, J.R. joined the U.S. Army in 2003, at age 19. Tragedy struck when, stationed in Iraq for just a few weeks, his Humvee hit a landmine. Trapped inside the vehicle as his fellow soldiers escaped, the Humvee became engulfed in ames. Although J.R. was rescued and survived, more than 40 percent of his body was seriously burned. Transported to a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, he underwent more than 30 surgeries, leaving him depressed, scared, and unmotivated. I saw Freddy Krueger, he said, when he rst looked in a mirror after ve weeks in the hospital. Encouraged by his mother and the hospital sta, J.R. gradually began talking to other burn victims and realized he had a knack for motivational speaking. He continued visiting burn victims and injured soldiers

at military bases around the country. I met J.R. in 2004, when he was already out of the hospital and undergoing outpatient care, says his close friend Daniel Vargas of San Antonio, Texas. Daniel is the Executive Director of Operation FINALLY HOME, a program that provides custommade homes to wounded and disabled veterans as well as to widows of the fallen to help them get their lives back on track. He operates the organization out of New Braunfels, Texas, and J.R. has supported him ever since he joined the organization two years ago. Daniel says he teared up when he saw his friend on the cover of People. The cover photo was just so J.R.smiling and condent. He used to joke that he was a guinea pig for the doctors who performed so many surgeries on him. In fact, since he started on Dancing With the Stars this season, many doctors have approached J.R. and said, Oh, I can help you, I can do this for you or perform a special surgery, and J.R, has turned

them down, saying This is who I am. And I respect and love that about him. In 2008, Daniel received an email from the ABC soap opera All My Children. The show was seeking real-life veterans to audition for the recurring role of an injured war veteran returning home. I sent the email to J.R. and then called him. I told him he had to go to New York and interview for this role. I knew in my heart he would get it. Anything he puts his mind to he gets done. His friends intuition was rock solidJ.R. landed the role of veteran Brot Monroe, and his fan base started to grow. Little did he know how much it would skyrocket. Unfortunately, ABC recently cancelled All My Children. But lots of good came from the shows cancellation. For one thing, J.R. met his girlfriend, Diana, the assistant to an executive producer, on the soap opera. And then, of course, ABC oered him the DWTS opportunitya journey that J.R. says, actually began on Facebook.
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