Text 27678, 90 rader
Skriven 2007-03-08 18:31:29 av Mimi Gallandt (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 27677 av Stan Hardegree (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: Marines
===============
Stan Hardegree -> Jeff Binkley wrote:
 SH> This morning I was sitting at my computer when, out of the blue, my son,
 SH> Mike, IMd me from Baghdad on a computer reserved for that purpose (emails
 SH> and IMs to and from family).

 SH> He told me that after a daylight mission late last week, his unit was
 SH> returning to their operating base when their convoy was hit by an IED.  A
 SH> friend of my son's - Josh - took the brunt of the blast - along with their
 SH> platoon medic.  Mike said that he and several others converged on the
 SH> wounded men and began lifesaving procedures they have trained on - stop
the
 SH> bleeding, treat for shock, etc...  The dazed medic came to a few minutes
 SH> after the explosion and helped the rest work on the more badly wounded
 SH> Josh - whose right hand was "hanging by a thread" as Mike put it (much
 SH> screaming and blood spattering omitted as the men worked).

 SH> Because Josh's hand was so badly damaged, the medic applied a tourniquet
to
 SH> the wrist, and they whisked the wounded soldier off to the unit aid
 SH> station,
 SH> which has doctors standing by.  The doctors amputated Josh's hand, cleaned
 SH> it up, iced it, and sent it along with him to the rear, and eventually to
 SH> North Carolina.  At last report, docs have re-attached the hand, and
 SH> Josh is
 SH> recuperating at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, home of their
 SH> unit.  Josh's wife and children can be with him there, and, I'm sure,
 SH> accelerate healing.

 SH> I would imagine that Josh has many months of therapy ahead of him in an
 SH> effort to regain use of his hand.  He is right handed, which troubles me
 SH> greatly.  But the silver lining here is that Josh had well-trained friends
 SH> around him when this happened, and that they did exactly the right thing
in
 SH> aiding him.

 SH> But a cautionary note: Mike said the IED that hit his convoy was the
 SH> conventional frag-type device.  He said that if it had been one of the new
 SH> devices they are seeing - likely provided by Iran - Josh and several
others
 SH> would have died.  The new ones discharge some sort of copper material
which
 SH> cuts through people and HUMVEEs "like butter," he said.

 SH> Around lunch today, I stopped by to see Becky Lauritzen at her shop to
 SH> update her on Mike's status.  Her son Micah has just returned from Iraq
 SH> after a tour there with his Marine unit.  Like my son, Micah is Infantry -
 SH> they both enlisted at the same time, with Mike choosing the Army.  Becky
 SH> said that she asked Micah if he would tell her about his time in Iraq.  He
 SH> answered, "I will tell some but not all.  Some of it stays with me,"  she
 SH> said.

 SH> When I left Becky's shop in my truck, I drove past Ada Large locking up
her
 SH> shop for lunch.  Her son Sam was killed about a year ago along with
several
 SH> other Marines in a helicopter crash off the coast of Africa.  Sam was the
 SH> fourth young man to die from this area during the war.

 SH> Mike is tentatively scheduled to deploy home in June, and Micah is
 SH> scheduled
 SH> to re-deploy to Iraq at the end of the year.

 SH> Today is a beautiful day in small-town Georgia, sunny and about 75
degrees,
 SH> but I'll be damned if the day doesn't feel like something out of a David
 SH> Lynch movie.

I wish I had the words to express the gratitude I feel for all these boys.
"Thank you" just doesn't seem strong enough for what I actually feel. Please
convey to your son and the other boys you know how much their service and
sacrifice means to me. (you're a writer you'll find the words I can't) Thank
you also for sharing this news with us.

-- 
L'Chaim

Mimi

WORDS TO LIVE BY-
“Polios have a certain advantage over the able-bodied when it comes to aging….
We do not confuse the quality of our life with the quality of our tennis game.
We know that happiness is not dependent upon activity nor is meaningful defined
by trophies. A meaningful life may be hampered—but need not be defined—by pain
or disability.ö
—Hugh G. Gallagher, 1998

mimigalATcoxDOTnet

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