Corpsman Brian Alaniz and Sgt. Eric Alva A few miles away at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva and Brian Alaniz, a Navy hospital corpsman 2nd class, share a room and a story.
The story has been told many times, once to Bush, who became teary-eyed when he heard it, and again on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Alva, of San Antonio, is the one who tells it.
As their military unit moved into Iraq from the Kuwaiti border, Alva was scanning the crowd of locals, looking for potential trouble.
"They were more afraid of us than we were of them," he said. "They were running indoors as we moved across the desert."
When their column of vehicles stopped for a rest, Alva moved to the front of his vehicle to rest and have a bite to eat. He never saw the land mine.
When it exploded, he tried to determine whether there was any further threat and how to get himself out of any danger.
The explosion set off confusion among those traveling with Alva. When Alaniz, a Navy corpsman from Austin, saw Alva lying on the ground, his leg tattered, he reacted instinctively.
"I went back to get the stretcher and trauma kits," Alaniz said. "And while putting the suction kit together, my right leg was apparently on a mine. When I moved, it exploded."
Alaniz dismissed the idea that he was doing anything special. "I was just doing my job," he said.
Lying in the hospital in Bethesda, hailed as heroes, the two are contemplating their futures. Each having lost a leg, medical discharge is sure to come.
Alaniz hasn't thought much about what he'll do, but he counts on his wife, Ammi, to be with him while he decides.
Alva said he wants to continue a pre-war hobby: running.
It's a topic he discussed with the president during his April 11 visit. Bush talked of advances in prosthetics for athletes and assured Alva he would be running again back in Texas, including on one of Bush's favorite trails in Austin.
"I'll make a prediction," he said. "You'll be running on Town Lake if you want to."
Alva wants to run competitively. "It won't be anytime soon," he said. "But I'll work up to big runs. I'll start with 5Ks, then 10Ks, and then I'll run a marathon."