PORT ANGELES — When Bobby Henline, a 40-year-old comedian, war veteran and burn survivor, took the stage at Peninsula College’s Little Theater, he paused to let the audience take in his appearance.
Burns cover most of his head, leaving only the lower right side of his face untouched, and his left arm ends in a pressure bandage just above where his wrist would be.
“You should see the other guy,” Henline deadpanned.
From there, it was on to a series of jokes, one-liners and tales of his experiences based on his appearance, injuries and recovery.
Sharon and Larry Wallace of Port Angeles know when they get a visit from their son-in-law, they’re going to hear some real zingers, sometimes even launched in their direction.
Sharon is a program assistant for Peninsula College’s Business and Community Education and Professional Technical programs. She helped with the arrangements for Henline to be guest speaker last week at Peninsula College’s Studium Generale forum.
Henline, who now calls himself the “Well-Done Comedian,” was an Army staff sergeant in Iraq when he nearly lost his life in a devastating 2007 roadside bomb attack.
His head was burned to the skull.
“It was during my fourth tour that I discovered that my lucky number is three,” he said Tuesday.
And in the past three years, he has parlayed his scarred visage into a newfound career and lots of laughs.
The audience of about 80 students and community members at first laughed tentatively but eventually roared as Henline kept the jokes coming.
“I’ll be the first comedian to arrive at his roast pre-cooked,” he said.
Henline joined the Army at age 17.
In order to get his mother’s permission to join before his 18th birthday, he had to promise that he wouldn’t become a paratrooper.
His uncle, the only other member of the family to serve, had been a paratrooper who drowned after becoming tangled in a parachute in a lake.
The loss left Henline’s mother with a terror both of military service and parachuting. So he made a deal with her: If she quit smoking, he wouldn’t apply to join an airborne unit.
By the age of 18, Henline was married and sent to the Middle East as part of Operation Desert Storm.
The next two years did not go well.
“By age 19, I was a divorced, alcoholic war veteran,” Henline said.
Three years later, he married the Wallaces’ daughter, Connie.
Henline briefly left the Army but missed it and often thought of re-enlisting — an idea his wife strongly opposed.
What had been a simmering desire to return became an overwhelming urgency after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when Henline rejoined the Army to offer his experience to help lead the new young crop of soldiers entering a war zone.
He was sent to Iraq for three 13-month tours, then transferred to a different unit that was about to deploy.
On April 7, 2007, only a few weeks after arriving in Iraq, Henline’s Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb just north of Baghdad.
He spent six months in the hospital fighting for his life.
Within two years, his left hand had to be amputated.
He has undergone 42 surgeries.
Five men had been in the vehicle.
Only Henline survived.
And, amazingly, so did his sense of humor.
When he woke up at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, two weeks after the explosion, his doctor asked if he was ready to see his wife.
“Doc, don’t you think I’ve suffered enough?” he quipped.
Comedy comes naturally to Henline.
He joked with fellow soldiers before his injuries and with other injured veterans after he was hurt.
And comedy has been part of his therapy since 2009.
On his first try during an open mic night at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, the “Well-Done Comedian” was born.
Henline said he believes his mission is to help create awareness for burn survivors, to inspire people to live life to the fullest and to heal others through his story and laughter.
His efforts — along with others such as J.R. Martinez, a fellow veteran burn victim and actor who appeared on the soap opera “All My Children” and won the televised “Dancing With the Stars” competition, have changed the way veterans and others with visible scarring and missing limbs are treated, Henline said.
Today, he lives in San Antonio with his wife, Connie, and their four children near a veterans hospital and burn center, where he continues to receive treatment.
Henline said that if he knew when he re-enlisted what his future would hold, he’d do it again.
“I don’t regret anything,” he said.
Henline’s 18-year-old son recently decided to join the Marines.
As a father, Henline said he would rather hi son joined the Air Force — it’s safer, he said — but he supports his son’s choice.
In-laws Larry and Sharon said they are incredibly proud of Henline’s recovery and attitude.
“He’s an inspiration to follow. I couldn’t have done it,” Larry said.
As a mother, Sharon said it was heartbreaking to watch Connie go through the experience with her husband.
But his response to the challenge has been positive and uplifting, and that has helped many others.
“He’s often called in to visit new soldiers at the hospital,” Sharon said.
“It’s a win for our side.”
Henline said Tuesday that he plans to participate in a film about comedians working with injured war veterans.
Henline performs regularly at the Laugh Out Loud and River Center Comedy Clubs in San Antonio and also has performed for troops in Kuwait, Iraq and other clubs all over the United States.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
