I'd say just wait until they ask you what you do. Tell them you're a soldier and that you were in Afghanistan. I should imagine they will start asking you questions about it, so it should come out naturally.

Make the story very emotional. Tell them how it FELT and what was going through your mind, fear, pain etc and relief when you recovered. Tell them how great it felt to see your loved ones again, when you got back. Take the girls on an emotional roller-coaster with this story.

When you start getting laid by doing it, you'll be thanking the Taliban. Joke aside, it's good that you want to turn something negative like this into something positive. Good luck with it and tells us how it goes.