WASHINGTON — Over the winter recess, Florida Republican Congressman Brian Mast flew overseas to help about 40 new amputees in Israel with their recovery process. 

He was invited by "The Next Step," a project of the Israel Medical Fund.

What You Need To Know

  •  Rep. Brian Mast was invited to Israel by "The Next Step" to speak to new amputees following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack

  •  While in Israel, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

  •  Mast lost his legs and a finger while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan in 2010

"They were looking for somebody to come in, speak to all of these new amputees, some of them from the military, and in military treatment centers, some of them civilians that were just in their home on the morning of Oct. 7, some of them that were at the concert," Mast said. 

Mast once volunteered for the Israel Defense Force in 2014. On his most recent visit to Israel, he visited a rehab ward for wounded IDF soldiers and border police officers with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

He said the first advice he gives typically isn't to the amputees themselves, but to their families.

"I tell them, you gotta be a jerk, you gotta be a pain in their tush, as they say ... because if you handle them with little soft gloves and don't push them to sweat, and have blood, sweat, and tears during physical therapy, they're never going to get strong enough to be to the point that they have the best possible mobility that they can to go forward in life for whatever the rest of their life is," he said. 

While they may be tough words, they came from someone who knows what it’s like to wear prosthetics himself. Mast lost both legs and a finger to a roadside bomb in 2010 while serving in the Army as a bomb technician in Afghanistan. 

"I lost two limbs, serving my country, serving my brothers to my left and right in combat," he said. "And because of that, I have no regrets."