Near the whining engines of Air Force One, Capt. David Rozelle looked at his wife and his 6-day-old son, and tried to stand at attention.

"I saw the commander in chief and I really wanted to come to attention," he said later, "But it's kind of hard to do on one foot."

Within minutes of the arrival of President Bush — less than two months after a land mine ripped into Rozelle's right foot — the Army officer looked up from the tarmac, put out his hand and stood tall.

Rozelle said the president told him, "Captain Rozelle, you will be back on your feet in no time, and in fact I'll go running with you soon. I'm going to find you and we're going to go on a run — just don't get faster than a seven-minute mile."

"I'm going to take him up on that," Rozelle said.

After the motorcade sped away Monday afternoon, Rozelle thought back to the past several weeks, which all started with an explosion. He thought back to the past several days, when he watched the birth of his first child. He thought back to the night before, when he received a call asking if he wanted to meet the president.

"Roller coaster," said Rozelle, who turns 31 next week — only a few days after he is fitted for a prosthetic foot. "That's as much as I can say. Roller coaster."

On June 21, Rozelle and his men from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Carson rolled through the Iraqi town of Hit, where they were assigned to train new police officers. After his Humvee was destroyed by the land mine, Rozelle was taken to Baghdad, where doctors amputated his foot.

As he recuperated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the due date neared for his pregnant wife, Kim.

"I was kicking and screaming to go home," he said. "I was faking my progress so I could come home."

In mid-July, 10 days before his son, Forest, was due, Rozelle arrived back in Colorado Springs, where he has been based for the past two years. Last Tuesday, he was back at another hospital — not as a patient, but as a father.

"It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen," he said. "It was beautiful."

On Monday, the president thanked Rozelle for his service, and his wife for hers, and the family then was taken on a tour of Air Force One. While inside, Rozelle said, the new parents briefly placed their baby in the commander in chief's chair.

"I got a couple of weeks to be the hero," he said, looking at the newborn. "Now he's the hero."