KING CITY, Mo. — It had been May since the twins were in town. This time, one brother got attention, even if he didn’t want it.

John Michael Gomez — everyone calls him Mike — stands tall and looks older than his 21 years, perhaps because of the scars around his missing right eye. He’s hoping his twin brother, Sean Patrick Gomez, won’t want to one-up his Purple Heart.

A forward observer, Spc. Michael Gomez is in the Army’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, attached to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. Since January, he has been working in Afghanistan’s Lowgar Province.

On Aug. 28, Mr. Gomez suited up in ballistic glasses, helmet, full body armor, gloves, a 100-pound backpack with a radio telephone and an M4 carbine. The mission — a dismounted patrol in the village of Charkh. The troops sweep houses and nearby fields, searching for weapons.

“AKs (old Soviet-era rifles) started going off, and my buddies and I were on all fours jumping behind walls,” Mr. Gomez said. “My buddies told me they caught two insurgents and killed eight others.”

Details became sketchy as a blinding and deafening blast occurred. He heard friends call for a medic.

“The medic was with him super fast,” said Kathy Brown, the twins’ mother. A medical evacuation helicopter landed under fire. They aren’t supposed to do that, but the pilot did, Mr. Gomez said.

“My lieutenant, Samuel Lyons, a pretty good Texas boy, gave me an arm for support,” he said. “There was no way I was being carried to that chopper.”

Shrapnel from the explosion destroyed his right eye and injured his brain, Mrs. Brown said. He has a traumatic brain injury, she said.

His mother got word from the Army less than 24 hours after the firefight. The doctors told the soldier the hard facts.

“He knew how lucky he was to be alive, and told them to do what they had to do,” Mrs. Brown said.

His mother and a nephew, Braxton Holcomb, 3, came to Walter Reed Hospital when Michael was shipped back to the states. Mr. Gomez said his nephew kept him smiling.

Recuperating at Walter Reed, the soldier had another hometown visitor. Retired Maj. Gen. Roger Combs was in Washington and came by for a visit. Back home, he also took time to go to Sunday’s welcome home party.

Jack Dierenfeldt, owner of T.J.’s Cafe in King City, hosted a welcome home for the twins Sunday, and more than 100 people turned out to welcome them back. The brothers talked about this and that. Patrick bought a 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo several years ago, but his brother wasn’t going to be outdone.

“It’s a muscle car. So I bought a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass,” Michael said.

In addition to a Purple Heart, Michael was awarded the Combat Action Badge, an award he said Patrick hadn’t received.

Patrick was a forward observer in Iraq with the 118th Infantry Battalion. He worked in a Baghdad neighborhood, where he was assigned to vehicle patrols and met a lot of friendly locals.

Questioned about his job, Michael talked about his duties in Afghanistan. He’d had to call in a few rounds of artillery, but most of the time it was the air units that came to the rescue.

Michael saw how the local Afghanis lived, and that made an impression. “Afghanistan’s a different world, made up of lots of small villages with mud houses, and sometimes you see satellite dishes on the flat roofs,” he said. Often, the kids have yellow teeth from drinking nearby river water.

“A butcher would chop off a cow leg and hang it outside for a week, where flies can land on it and villagers could come and cut off a strip for a price,” Mr. Gomez said. “It’s so gross.”

The twins haven’t forgotten their football years at Bishop LeBlond High School, from where both graduated in 2006. Mom drove them to St. Joseph every school day. Michael studied a year at Missouri Western State University, while Patrick did a semester and then went to work for Herzog. For different reasons, they enlisted in the Army.

“I wanted to get out of town and see the country,” Michael said.

“For me, well, I needed some direction,” Patrick said. “Straightening out.”

Michael will report in mid-October to Walter Reed for a custom prosthetic eye. He’d like to stay in and become an instructor, but also will listen to recruiters from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals office.

Patrick has been having discussions with his battalion commander, who wants to send him to Ranger school at Fort Benning, Ga.

Meanwhile, local residents said they’re listening for some squealing tires and other car sounds, as the twins enjoy one more military leave together.

Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.