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Wounded Soldier's Salute In Hospital Bed Moves Nation

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An American soldier who was injured in Afghanistan has brought the nation to tears from his hospital room.

Army Ranger Cpl. Josh Hargis, 24, lost both of his legs, but survived the detonation of an improvised explosive device in the Panjwai District in Afghanistan. Four of his fellow soldiers were killed.

At a hospital in Afghanistan, Hargis received a Purple Heart, and his commander sent an incredible picture back to the man's family.

Just after the ceremony, with a purple heart on his chest, Hargis fought a doctor who tried to restrain him and raised his arm in salute.

"I don't even think it was conscious. I think it was unconscious. I think he was totally out. That's the way he is," said his father, Jim Hargis. "He felt it."

His wife, Taylor Hargis, posted to Facebook that her husband's gesture was "the most beautiful salute any person in that room had ever seen."

"I cannot impart on you the level of emotion that poured through the intensive care unit that day. Grown men began to weep and we were speechless at a gesture that speak volumes about Josh's courage and character," she wrote. "The picture, which we believe belongs on every news channel and every newspaper is attached."

Hargis' commander told the parents the gesture was the single greatest event he has witnessed in the Army.

Hargis, a Cincinnati native, is being transferred to a military hospital in Texas.

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