GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A retired Marine who was once in a fight for his life is now helping educate younger generations in West Michigan.

With a father and grandparents who served, the military has always been a part of Bryan Forney’s life.

“I was born on a Marine Corps base in Camp Pendleton, California. My dad was an artillery Marine,” Forney said.

After graduating high school in 1993, he attended the Naval Academy, earning a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.

Forney was later service-selected to the Marine Corps where he became qualified as a CH-46 helicopter pilot.

“Always wanted to serve something greater than myself. Always been a patriot, and love the country and what it stands for,” Forney said. “I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t thinking of going to the military.”

On Feb. 20, 2013, Forney’s life changed forever.

While doing mountain training in Thailand during Exercise Cobra Gold, he was critically injured during a helicopter mishap.

“We as a crew just kind of lost sight of a tree that was behind us,” Forney said. “As I took power off the airplane, the rotor blades came down a little bit, hit the tree, and broke one of the rotor blades. That put the airplane out of balance and about five seconds after we hit the tree, the airplane basically ripped itself apart.”

Forney was with others who were able to escape the wreckage, but he remained trapped. Just when he thought he may be out of time, he was rescued.

“I was able to get my feet out from underneath the console and across my copilot’s seat. That was as far as I could get because of my other injuries, and luckily for me my crew chief ran up and made one last time attempt to basically reach through the flames, found my boots, and pulled me out,” Forney said.

The whole time, he said his mind was on his family.

“They say your life kind of flashes before your eyes, I didn’t really experience that. It was just kind of ‘Man, I screwed up’ and I’m not going to see my wife and kids,'” Forney said.

The incident left Forney with severe burns and injuries to his left hand and arm, which now causes him to use a prosthetic.

After being treated at facilities overseas, he was flown to the U.S. military’s burn center in San Antonio, where he continued to recover.

“I joke with people all the time. They’re like ‘Hey, it’s really impressive you made it through.’ And I’m like, ‘My job for like five straight months was to just not stop breathing,'” Forney said.

Earlier in his career Forney also taught at the U.S. Naval Academy. So when he was able to work again, life led him to give back to young people.

“I remember going through my recovery and I was like, one of the things I can still do is teach,” Forney said.

He taught for several years within Grand Rapids Public Schools. He’s now an engineering department leader and teacher at the West Michigan Aviation Academy.

“As a Marine Corps officer, we spend a lot of time with young Marines. Well, they’re not a whole lot older than high school students,” Forney said.

In his role, he wants to help fill a need for trained engineers. It’s also about giving students skills through engineering that they can carry throughout life.

“Take a complex problem, break it down into pieces, identify what the actual problem is, and then start looking at what success looks like and then start that process. So I think everyone benefits from it,” Forney explained.

He said interacting with students and being in the classroom has been very fulfilling.

“There are days when I’m making them write stuff down in their engineering notebooks that they’re not super thrilled with me but by and large they have fun in these classes and that’s what makes this great,” Forney said.

He also told News 8 he’s thankful that the support of his family and his faith guided him through adversity.

“Everything is burning around you and it’s all falling apart, having a little bit of faith, hope and trust. It’s amazing what (God) can do with whatever mess you create,” Forney said.