Category: Real Soldiers

BooRadley sends this story from her hometown about an Iraq veteran who donated his kidney to his step-grandfather;

“My daughter was going to be a donor and went through all the tests, but they said she was a bad candidate,” the 62-year-old Jackson said. “Actually, I really stopped looking. I was just going to wait and see because I was on the transplant list. I wasn’t going to ask anybody else.”

Without Jackson knowing, Foor thought he would be tested and learned he would be a good match. Otherwise, Jackson would have continued with home dialysis and waited an estimated five years on the transplant list for a match.

Certainly something you don’t want to hear. But that’s what Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune told his passengers, mostly wounded British soldiers, over Afghanistan. Ok, that’s not exactly what he said – you can hear him on this video.

In clips seen for the first time, he is heard calmly telling his passengers: “Just to let you know, I took a round through my front windscreen which came up and hit me in the head. I’ve got a bit of a crack and a bleed there.”

He then managed to manuever his aircraft at 120 mph back to the base. That earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

This is republished from 2008, but Operation Gothic Serpent was 17 years ago today. It’s lessons live on and we’re still waging a war that has it’s roots in that battle;

15 years ago today I lost a dear friend. Tim Martin and I showed up at the Reception Station in Fort Polk Louisiana – I won’t mention the year, the fact that they were still doing Basic and Infantry AIT at Ft Polk should be enough to narrow it down for you. He was a huge, quiet and friendly guy and I felt lucky that we were attached alphabetically through those 16 weeks. I can’t count the times that I’d stumbled and looked up to see his outstretched hand to help me up.

After those 16 weeks, then four weeks together at the Basic Airborne Course in Georgia then he went to the 2d Ranger Battalion at Lewis and I went to Fort Stewart (yes, the 1st Battalion was actually on Fort Stewart in those days). We went off in our separate directions for four years and then ended up in the same SFQC class at Fort Bragg – alphabetically attached once again. After that six months, we rarely saw each other, but each time we met, the conversation picked up right where it had left off the last time.

I’ve never met anyone who ever met him that had a bad word for him. He loved the Army, and later I learned he loved his family more.

I discovered his final fate on October 18th, 1993 while I was leaving my last duty station as a retired soldier when I read the casualty list from what is now known as the “Blackhawk Down” fiasco and found his name.

I spent the next seven years trying to find out what happened to him. I became a member of the fine Paratrooper.net forum, run by my good friend Mark (back when Mark and I were the only participating members). As the forum grew, I put together bits and pieces of the story and some wonderful soul sent his wife, Linda, my way. She sent me pictures of him which I’ve put on my accompanying website as a memorial to Master Sergeant Tim “Griz” Martin.

The movie Blackhawk Down did a great job capturing his personality and immortalizing his love for his daughters.

Another friend at paratrooper.net, 509thTrooper, helped me get Tim a brick at the Ranger Memorial in Fort Benning. Then Trooper went and took a picture of the brick for me.

I stop and visit with Tim at Arlington at least twice every year on Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day and every Christmas when I make my rounds there. And every day I give thanks for men like Tim Martin who are willing to put everything on the line for the rest of us. But today, especially, I save for Tim. And for Linda and their girls who sacrificed everything for us as well.

And thanks to COB6 for reminding me to share it with you.

Thanks to Blackfive and DrewM for the link.

Lt. Travis Manion and Lt. Brendan Looney were roommates at the US Naval Academy for three years whose friendship extended past graduation. Manion became a Marine and Looney a SEAL. Their friendship ended, however, when Manion was killed in an ambush in Iraq while Looney was completing SEAL training. While he wasn’t able to attend the funeral, Looney dedicated his training to Manion’s memory and graduated first in his SEAL class.

Tragically, Looney died in a helicopter crash on September 21st and was scheduled for burial at Arlington, miles from Manion’s resting place near his family in Pennsylvania. (CNN link)

“Brendan had told his brother that he would want to be buried next to Travis,” Manion-Borek said.

When Looney’s wife Amy first heard the news, “the first thing that came out of her mouth was, ‘well then he has to be buried next to Travis,’ ” Manion-Borek said.

The Manion family immediately set to work with Arlington National Cemetery to try to transfer Travis’ body.

His body was exhumed and transported to Arlington, where it was laid to rest Friday during a ceremony attended by both families. Looney’s body will join him on Monday.

You may remember the story about Michael Demich, the 89-year-old World War II veteran whose house was burglarized. Among the items stolen was his Purple Heart for wounds he got while engaged in military operations in France. Well, BooRadley sends an update that the Purple Heart has been returned.

The man, probably in his 40s and with a young girl accompanying him, told Demich he bought the items for $10 and, when his wife told him about the newspaper article she read, he knew he had to return the items.

Demich tried to offer the man a reward, but the man declined, saying he only wanted to return what belonged to Demich.

Mr. Demich and his family have received hundreds of phone calls and letters of support from his community and from across the nation.

“We want to thank everybody for all the response. It’s overwhelming … People from around the country are reaching out,” [Demich’s daughter, Linda] Harrell said. “It’s so nice that this has touched everybody’s heart … This shows that people are sincere and do care about him.”

It looks like nothing but good news so far this morning.

BooRadley sends this article from her hometown about Michael Demich, a veteran of World War II who was wounded in France and awarded the Purple Heart. Now decades later, someone broke into his house while he was there and stole that precious memento of his wounds and his subsequent hospitalization.

Demich, 89, was sitting in his living room at the back of the house watching television. The back door was open. Sometime between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m on Saturday someone opened the bedroom window and climbed in, locking the bedroom door from inside.

They searched dresser drawers, lifted a 180-pound safe out of the closet, and emptied its contents onto the bed.

The suspects found the purple heart, Demich’s wedding band, coins he collected while serving in Europe, his late wife’s costume jewelry and a bag of quarters and took it all.

The family is left wondering who would want the Purple Heart? What value could it possibly have to whoever took it? Will they ever see it again?

They’re hoping someone will find the medal or that whoever took it will bring it back.

“Just put it in the mailbox,” Demich said.

There are video interviews with Demich at the link that are heartbreaking. Although the medal can be replaced, the replacement won’t have the same meaning as the medal he was awarded in his hospital bed.

“I will not be bullied out of my home,” he said.