SURVIVOR: Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry was photographed with his inspirational tattoo aboard a medevac helicopter after being hit by a roadside bomb. (Laura Rauch/Stars and Stripes)
JUSTIN BRANNAN Council aide and songwriter. (Theodore Parisienne)
SURVIVOR: Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry was photographed with his inspirational tattoo aboard a medevac helicopter after being hit by a roadside bomb. (Laura Rauch/Stars and Stripes)
He pens City Council speeches for a living, but his best writing is stitched across the right rib cage of a triple-amputee war hero — and helped give the soldier the strength to survive.
The badly wounded GI — Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry — says he had never heard of Justin Brannan, a top aide to Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn), or Brannan’s ’90s hard-core band, Indecision, when he got a tattoo with the phrase “For those I love I will sacrifice” in 2011, three weeks before being deployed to Afghanistan.
It’s a lyric from a song, “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” which Brannan penned and recorded in 1997 with Indecision, his band with former classmates from Xaverian HS in Bay Ridge.
The words became especially meaningful to Hockenberry, who is from Marietta, Ohio, and his family a year ago Friday, when the soldier lost both legs and his left arm in a roadside explosion.
Sgt. Nicholas Hensley of Prattville, Ala., was also badly injured in another explosion on June 15, 2011 — while bringing Hockenberry to safety — and died nine days later.
“The words kind of came true,” Hockenberry, 20, recently told The Post of his tattoo. “Everyone sacrificed a lot.”
As the Purple Heart recipient bravely fought for his life after he was wounded, his family asked doctors to try to preserve the inspirational tattoo while conducting multiple skin grafts and surgeries. They were able to do so.
“I’m glad [the tattoo] was saved because it now has a lot more meaning,” said Hockenberry, adding that he’s “recovering well” in San Antonio and even began walking with prosthetics a few months ago.
Hockenberry first heard of the quote after 9/11, when it took on a life of its own as many New York cops and firefighters got tattoos of it to honor those who perished.
Brannan, 34, said he learned about Hockenberry after viewing a photo on Time magazine’s Web site in September. The snapshot was of the soldier in a medevac helicopter after the roadside blast, his tattoo fully exposed.
“It was very humbling,” Brannan said. “Kyle’s sacrificed for his country and people he never met, so it put everything in perspective.”
Brannan said he wants to talk to Hockenberry. He said Indecision, which toured from 1993 to 2000, is making a mini-comeback and would “love to” do a show raising money to build a “smart” home for the wounded soldier.
“I feel like I will always be connected to Kyle and would love to help him and meet him,” Brannan said.
A group of charities headed by the Gary Sinise Foundation is already planning an Aug. 16 concert to raise funds for the smart home, but Hockenberry said he’d be “happy” to meet Brannan and accept Indecision’s help.