J.R. Martinez was the cute little boy who grew up to be the good-looking linebacker on the high school football team.

Until, that is, the day he now calls his "birthday." It was an April afternoon five years ago. The war in Iraq was just a few weeks old. Army Corporal Martinez was behind the wheel of a Humvee, leading a convoy toward Karbala.

"I remember hitting a landmine and immediately I went into this desperation scream, yell. I was thinking, 'My body's burning,'" Corporal Martinez tells INSIDE EDITION's Deborah Norville. "I can actually see my hands being burned and the skin was actually melting away...I could see that," he says, reliving the painful moments over and over in his mind. 

He was burned over 40% percent of his body. His head, his face, parts of his arms and legs, even his lungs suffered burn damage.

After 32 operations, J.R. says he's done with surgery. Now medically discharged from the Army, he lives on his military pension, which also supports his mother as well as his extended family in El Salvador.

Today, J.R. gives his time to organizations helping soldiers he considers more wounded than he is.

A 5K race raised money for "Building Homes for Heroes," an organization that builds houses for severely wounded veterans like Pete Herrick, a soldier left quadriplegic in Florida.

However, more than raising money, J.R. is raising spirits.
  
He travels the country as a motivational speaker, and brought his bright smile to visit INSIDE EDITION's Deborah Norville on the show's set.

"I still dress a certain way. I still feel like I'm a pretty boy. I still feel like I'm an attractive guy...it just goes deeper now," he says. 

With that inspirational outlook, one can understand how J.R. has come to celebrate the day he was trapped in a burning vehicle.

When asked why April 5th is such an important "birth date" for him, because it was not the day Martinez was actually born, the Army corporal says, "They didn't know if I was going to be able to make it or not and here I am, so it's definitely great day to celebrate."

For more information about Army Corporal J.R. Martinez and his progress, visit his blog: www.jrneverquits.blogspot.com.