MILILANI — Wheelchair bound with two broken legs, Pfc. Anthony Vandegrift is recovering at the home of his parents and wondering what's next for him.

The 2005 graduate of Mililani High School said he has no idea what he's going to do.

"I'd really like to keep my job in the infantry," said Vandegrift, 22. "But with the extent of my injuries, I don't think I'm ever going to be fully recovered. I don't think I'm going to be able to take all the weight on my back.

"I'm hoping I can. But if I can't, I'll probably just swap to another job.

"I'd like to keep serving until my time's done."

Vandegrift is the son of Dennis and Brenda Vandegrift.

Born in Berlin, Vandegrift has lived in Hawai'i since he was in preschool.

"My dad was stationed here when he was in the Army. He retired here as a command sergeant major."

Following graduation, Vandegrift went to college for a couple of years and then quit to enlist. His father advised him not to join the infantry. He did it anyway.

Now, as he recovers, Vandegrift enjoys a certain Internet celebrity — thanks to a photograph taken in April by Associated Press photographer Rafiq Maqbool — the same photographer who took shots of Vandegrift at Bagram's SSG Heath N. Craig Joint Theater Hospital after his Humvee had been blown in half.

In that photo, which has made the international Internet rounds, Vandegrift plays his electric Ibanez guitar outside the tent in a Blackhawk Combat Outpost in the Nerkh district on Wardak province west of Kabul.

That picture appeared in major newspapers across America and in Europe. Now, a second AP photo of Vandegrift playing a guitar accompanies a national article about the bloodiest year since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. This time, he's playing an acoustic guitar in an Afghanistan hospital bed.

Both times Vandegrift was photographed playing a guitar he was performing an instrumental rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." A video journalist shooting a documentary in Afghanistan has also filmed Vandegrift playing the song on his guitar.

"He wanted to use it at the very end for the credits," Vandegrift said.

Which ultimately could make Vandegrift the most famous national anthem-performing guitarist this side of Jimi Hendrix.