Phillip Tussey recalls riding in a parade once with his grandfather while growing up in Hephzibah.

At age 23, he led his hometown's third annual September Fest parade Saturday as grand marshal, his neighbors and childhood friends calling his name and cheering him on from the sidewalks along Georgia Highway 88.

All he had to do was join the Marines, spend two months in one of the most dangerous spots in Iraq, then take a sniper round to his left leg.

Lance Cpl. Tussey, wearing his Marine dress blue uniform, rode in the bed of an open-backed Humvee, escorted by 46 Marines from Fort Gordon. They passed Hephzibah's quaint Southern homes, its trailers, its gas stations, The Burger Shack and families tailgating in pickups and minivans.

As spectators applauded and yelled, "Phillip!" he waved stoically, casting a wry smile from under his visor hat.

A woman in the crowd pointed to him. "He's the one that lives not far from my house," she said.

Before he was a hometown hero, Lance Cpl. Tussey was a Hephzibah High School graduate who went on to drop out of Augusta Technical College after one semester. He worked a few jobs at John Deere and Club Car before enlisting in the Marines in October 2003.

That was seven months after the launch of the Iraq war. Lance Cpl. Tussey said it didn't bother him.

"You know when you join, you gotta go somewhere," he said. "Somebody's gotta do it. I wasn't worried about it."

After a stint in Haiti, he deployed to Iraq in March with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines.

His unit was stationed in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold about 40 miles west of Baghdad. The Marine grunts' job was to patrol the streets and draw al-Qaida soldiers into firefights.

Kilo Company was featured in a May 29 Time magazine article titled, "The Most Dangerous Place," which included an account of Lance Cpl. Tussey getting shot.

According to the article, he was part of a block-by-block foot patrol that had commandeered a small shopping complex. They were being hunted by a sniper when an order came over the radio to move back to base, which was only 150 yards away.

As Lance Cpl. Tussey made a dash across five yards of open ground in an alley, he was hit in the thigh.

"It kind of felt like getting hit by a paint ball," he said. "Pressure. You felt a lot of pressure."

A firefight broke out as Marines loaded him into the back of a Humvee. That happened the morning of May 1, Lance Cpl. Tussey said. He was out of Ramadi the next day.

Now he's stationed at Camp Lejueune, N.C., where he's undergoing physical therapy. He said he expects to eventually have full use of his leg again. He can already walk on it, but he usually needs a cane.

When he's not at doctor's appointments, he spends his time at cookouts, going deep sea fishing and reading to children at the elementary school on the installation. Most weekends, he makes the drive back to Hephzibah.

"It's kind of funny, because everybody's pretty much doing the same thing they were in high school," he said. "Very few people get out of Hephzibah.

"I guess I can't complain," he added. "I can't wait to get home either."

He came to town Friday with a fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Adam Sardinas, 21, from Tampa Bay, who was also in Kilo Company and appeared in the Time article. His left thumb was shredded by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade.

The two said that in Ramadi, there were 20-minute firefights almost every day. They couldn't count the number of Marines from their unit who were killed, and they didn't seem to want to talk about it.

Asked what they thought the chances are for success in Iraq, Lance Cpl. Sardinas said, "No comment."

Lance Cpl. Tussey's stepsister, Dana Heatwole, is an assistant city clerk for Hephizbah. She said Fire Chief Robert Morris asked her whether her stepbrother would serve as grand marshall for this year's September Fest.

"Everybody remembers when it happened, when he got shot," she said.

When his Humvee reached end of the parade route, Lance Cpl. Tussey walked back to the sidewalk and watched the rest of the parade go by. Once he's out of the Marines, he said, he plans to move back to Hephzibah and take classes at Augusta Tech to become a nurse.

Asked how it felt to lead the parade, he said, "Hot." He passed on the cookout and craft fair afterward.

"I've got to get out of this uniform," he said. "I'm burning up."

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.