By ABBY DREY | Centre Daily Times | Published: April 18, 2021 SPRING MILLS, Pa. (Tribune News Service) Sgt. Adam Hartswick and RJ Shirey call each other brothers, though they only met four years ago. The best family is the family you choose, Hartswick said with a laugh earlier this month in his Spring Mills home, as he and Shirey lounged with their prosthetic legs on the ottoman. The State College Area High School alums who graduated nine years apart were brought together after two accidents and dozens of surgeries that left them both amputees. While their trauma experiences were very different Hartswick s injuries occurred in May 2013 in Afghanistan; Shirey s hunting accident happened three years later in Centre County each showed grit and determination that helped save their lives, and now they re drawing on those experiences to help others.