I've always had a special place in my heart for the children of our military personnel. They are some of the bravest and most inspiring kiddos I've ever met. And the children of the Wounded seem to have a resilience beyond most adults I know.
So as we celebrate the Month of the Military Child do something to honor a child of a military person or veteran. After all, children learn from our examples.
From Defenselink
Month of the Military Child Has Deeper Meaning for Wounded Warrior FamiliesBy Army Staff Sgt. Matthew CliftonSpecial to American Forces Press Service |
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FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, April 30, 2009 – The road to recovery for a wounded soldier can be long and difficult, but with the help of Army medicine and the love of military spouses and children, that road is shorter and smoother. For some soldiers who use the Warrior Family Support Center here, their sons and daughters have played an instrumental role in their recovery as wounded veterans. Soldiers and their families use the center at no cost to them while they receive care at Brooke Army Medical Center here. Through peer and community support and recreational activities, the center provides a high-quality setting for the whole family as they return to normal life.Reestablishing family responsibilities is critical to the recovery of many soldiers. At least 1.7 million American children have at least one parent serving in the military with an estimated 900,000 of those with parents who have deployed multiple times overseas. On April 29, Army Secretary Pete Geren expressed his personal appreciation to a group of children of wounded warriors at the center. "The Army is asking a lot of you all and I hope that we are doing everything we can to help you and your parents," Geren said. Abby Smith, 10, the daughter of Spc. Jourdan Smith, an infantryman who served with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division of Fort Lewis, Wa., knows first-hand the hardships family members can face supporting their wounded warriors. "When I first got injured, she didn't want to look at me, and I used to have to make fun of my injuries to try to cheer her up," said Smith, recalling how he told his daughter the wounds on his leg looked like train tracks. "She had a hard time dealing with my situation at first, but now she helps me more than I can believe. "It was like she went from 8 to 18 in just two years." Abby was 8, and her brother was 10 months old, when her father was injured by gunfire while serving in Iraq. She felt sorry for her father as well as for her mother who stepped up to take care of the whole family. So Abby contributed by helping her dad exercise his knee and by bringing him blankets on cold days and ice on warm days. The crucial role spouses and children play in the recovery of injured soldiers is not lost on the Smith family, who also remember the days before the injury when Smith could play a more active role in the life of his daughter. "Before I could run and play with her, but now I have to sit and watch," Smith said. "She has done incredible though and will help me tie my shoes or clear the table for me." But the sacrifices Abby has made to help her father are larger than just helping around the house. Abby was forced to miss a lot of school after her father's injury, and eventually had to be taken out of public school in favor of home schooling. "There are so many times I feel like I can't do anything, and there Abby is to help me out with whatever I need," Smith said. "She is my life, and I feel like I owe my life to her." Their story is not uncommon. Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris, a Soldier recovering at BAMC, suffered burns on 35 percent of his body, and credits his daughter as the inspiration for his hugely successful recovery. His youngest child, Elizabeth, was four years old at the time, and when Harris was discharged on an outpatient status, Elizabeth assisted her mother with his daily care. Since 1986, the Defense Department has recognized the sacrifices and applauded the courage of military children by designating April as the Month of the Military Child. |
Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive has been at it again.
The war comes home: Utah 6-year-old accepts his late father's Silver Star
WEST HAVEN -- Often, when the skies above Kanesville Elementary School are clear, children on recess can look up and see a fighter jet from nearby Hill Air Force Base slicing a sharp white contrail into the blue.
Some of those jets have cut similar trails across Afghan skies. And that's as close as most of this suburban school's students will ever come to the ongoing battle in south Asia.
But the war flew much closer to home on Wednesday. In a morning assembly before hundreds of teary-eyed students, a stoic six-year-old named Jase Spargur accepted the Silver Star -- the U.S. military's third-highest medal for valor -- on behalf of his fallen father.
Jonathan Brostrom was one of nine soldiers killed when hundreds of Taliban guerillas armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars ambushed an Army outpost near the village of Wanat, near the Pakistani border, on July 13.
According to accounts from fellow soldiers, the 24-year-old Army first lieutenant was responding to enemy fire from a relatively safe location when he learned that soldiers in a nearby observation post were in trouble. He was killed while trying to ferry medical supplies and ammunition across a 100-yard stretch between the two positions.
Today, Jase's memories of his father are mostly just images. He recalls surfing together in Hawaii, where his father grew up. He remembers swimming together in the ocean. And he recollects playing video games together in the family's home.
"He used to throw me up into the air," Jase says. "We'd do all kinds of cool stuff like that."
Jase's mother, Lindsey Spargur, said her son has come to accept the death of his father, even if he still doesn't fully comprehend what happened. Wednesday's assembly, she said, gave her boy an opportunity to see their family isn't alone in the way they speak about his father -- or in the way they honor his sacrifice.
"Lieutenant Brostrom was a hero," said Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, commander of the Utah National Guard, who presented the medal to Jase in the school's gym. "And there are other heroes here with us today. Jase is one of them."
Principal Mel Hawkes said he didn't think twice when military officials approached him with an offer to present the award to Jase in front of the entire school. "We want our students to understand that this is not just something that happens on the news," he said. "This is something that affects us all."
Hawkes said all of the teachers in his school were asked to show their classes a video describing what had happened to Jase's father in preparation for the assembly. But as images of Jase and his father were projected onto a screen ahead of the presentation of the award, many of the students ---and their teachers -- broke into tears.
"That's good," Tarbet said. "I think it's good for them to understand."
For most, the assembly lasted a half-hour. For Jase, Tarbet noted, the loss will last his entire life.
That fact was not missed by 12-year-old Garrett Peterson.
Like most sixth graders, Peterson had never spent much time contemplating the nation's ongoing wars, let alone the cost. And he didn't know that a young boy from his own school had suffered the death of his father in battle.
"When I found out, I felt so bad for him, because I could understand how this would be so hard for me," Peterson said. "I couldn't live without my dad."
At least for a few moments, on Wednesday, the war had come home.
mlaplante@sltrib.com / blogs.sltrib.com/military
Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive put together this video and posted it on their blog today. Gotta have it here too!
For anyone who's never been in a fire fight or seen video of one this is merely a fraction of one. Keep in mind that the 173rd, 2-503 was engaged in well over 1000 fire fights in the 15 months they were in Afghanistan. Some fire bases and OPs would have up to 4 fire fights in a day. Amazing men. So amazing!
Where to start other than to say that once again I've had the honor of spending time with some of America's great Patriots. Extreme KUDOS to the staff of www.milblogging.com for putting together another FANTASTIC Milblog Conference. The session topics were relevant and well chosen. The panelists were terrific. And, well, the social events were definitely social! I must confess I didn't take any photos during the sessions. Sorry.
It was wonderful to be able to catch up with old friends Yankeemom who, as I understand, is going to have an exciting story to tell, CJ from A Soldier's Perspective, Jonn and TSO from This Ain't Hell and, of course, my buds at Blackfive. I'm sure I've missed some. Sorry And I had the opportunity to meet people whose blogs I've been following such as Troy at Bouhammer's Afghanistan Blog, Ponsdorf, and The Sniper. I even met that "oh so annoying commentor" that seems to have a "thing" for my buddies at This Ain't Hell Southern Democrat. Go figure that he'd show up.
BUT.....
I've got a lot of photos to share from last night's pub crawl. OK, turns out we didn't actually crawl anywhere. Once we planted ourselves at O'Sullivans we made it a night/morning there. Probably close to 30 people. Bloggers, active duty and retired military personnel, representatives of Soldiers Angels, civilian supporters and a couple of VERY SPECIAL GUESTS from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
My BFFs, Jamie and Caroline, The USO Girls held an auction to raise money for Defenders of Freedom and their upcoming golf tournament. Caroline was gracious enough to volunteer Jamie to be auctioned off as a date to a lucky guy. Their goal was to raise enough money, $140.00, to sponsor one Wounded Warrior to participate in the Defenders of Freedom Fund Raising Golf Tournament. Well, I'm thrilled to announce (and dang proud of my friends) they raised enough to sponsor FIVE Wounded Warriors to particpate. HOOOOOAH! ladies!
Since they raised so much money we decided Jamie should have two dates. I called a couple of my buddies from the 173rd, 2-503 who are recovering at Walter Reed and, well, pretty much told them I had arranged a date for them. Good thing they've known me for a while or I wouldn't have blamed them for thinking I had lost my mind. Luckily they know me well enough played along. I'm happy to announce that I have spoken with them today and they had a BLAST last night.
ConcreteBob, who blogs here and here as well as a couple of other places from time to time AND who is one of the key movers and shakers for Victory in Iraq Day 13 June 2009, Washington, DC volunteered to run out to WRAMC and pick up SPC (P) Bob Remmel and SGT Jedda Deloria. They were Jamie's dates for the night. We made our way via metro to O'Sullivans.
Made it to O'Sullivans and got the daters settled in
We ordered food in preparation of some long hours of drinking
Uncle Jimbo and I had an Irish Car Bomb in honor of our friend kev who just deployed to Iraq. It's tradition. Every time I've been with Uncle Jimbo and/or kev we've ALWAYS had at least one Irish Car Bomb. This one was for kev. Love you kev!
Caroline decided that Remmel needed some "artwork" around his scar from his injury sustained at Battle at the Ranch House in Afghanistan
She even signed it "Love USO Girls"
Remmel, I'm telling you - they CANNOT go back to Italy with you!
All involved agreed it was THE BEST DATE
Just a few more pics to share. All in all a great weekend. Definitely LOTS of good things on the horizon. Stay tuned here or at any of the blogs mentioned above for annoucements and updates. I'm going to take a nap now.
This is just one of the more recent stories (thousands I'm sure) about our military personnel around the globe, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq, who are doing GOOD things and performing HUMANITARIAN acts of goodness and kiindness. And, once again, not a story that will be told on any of the major media outlets.
I'm gonna issue a "tissue alert" on this one. I needed it. God Bless SPC Janda and all those who assisted to ensure this child's life was saved.
From DVIDS
6-4 Medic Saves Baby's Life in Bazaar
Story by Staff Sgt. David Hopkins
Date: 04.26.2009
Posted: 04.26.2009 09:23
JALALABAD AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — When a man with blood-soaked hands emerged from a small shop in the Nishgam bazaar in northeastern Afghanistan in mid-March and approached a troop of Soldiers he had one request for their medic—to save a baby's life.
Soldiers from Charlie Troop, 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, were on patrol through the bazaar to show a presence in the area when a local Afghan nurse burst into the street seeking help from the American Soldiers.
"I wasn't sure what he wanted at first," Army Spc. Anthony Janda, C Troop medic from Buffalo, N.Y., said, "but I followed him into the little shop. Inside there was an 8-year-old boy holding a baby who was wrapped in gauze and had blood all over him."
The baby was victim to a circumcision that went wrong in a village across the border in Pakistan and was brought to the nurse to help, but his knowledge and supplies were limited and the baby was in shock. Janda knew immediately the injury was serious judging by the amount of blood on the floor.
Acting quickly, the medic began to remove the gauze from the child and for the first time realized just how bad the injury was.
"When I started to pull the gauze away blood squirted at me," Janda said. "I didn't really think about it at that point. It was all instinctive."
He had never worked on a baby and was not trained in any medical techniques to save babies, but Janda, a father of a 3-year-old, knew he had to save the child.
He tried to control the bleeding by applying gauze to the wound. While he was doing this, he sent another Soldier back to get his non-commissioned officer in charge, Army Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy Carswell from Dexter, Ga., so he could request an evacuation. However, before the senior non-commissioned officer arrived the baby's heart stopped beating.
"I've never done CPR on a baby before," Janda said. "Normally I just work on the guys, making sure they are healthy and mission capable. This was completely new."
He performed CPR on the baby and in a couple minutes detected a pulse, but the baby still wasn't out of the water. The child had lost a lot of blood and the medic had none to replenish his supply.
The medic and Carswell, who had arrived and was working on getting the baby evacuated, decided to try an IV solution called HEXTAND, which adheres to blood cells and adds more volume to the blood supply.
Janda found a small needle in his aid bag and found the baby's tiny vein on the first attempt, but when doing so the baby's heart stopped beating again, and again he managed to bring the baby back with CPR.
The baby wouldn't make it if they didn't get him to surgery so Carswell ran out into the street to hire a cab.
"I found a local and had our interpreter get him to find a cab," Carswell said. "It's a 30 minute drive, but it was the only way to get him back to the [forward operating base]."
Before the cab arrived the baby's heart stopped a third time and again Janda brought him back.
When the child was stable again the nurse from the shop went along with him on the rough, gravel roads to FOB Bostick. The intravenous solution was working by the time they arrived and the baby was responsive and crying.
With the help of a large medical team and a pediatrician on the phone they managed to stitch up the baby and save him.
"The cut was deep," said Army Sgt. Shay Wilson, Forward Operating Base Bostick's Aid Station non-commissioned officer in charge from Chicago, Ill. "When the surgery was performed, just over the border in Pakistan, the surgeon, or whoever did the surgery, cut too deep. The baby lost a lot of blood, but Janda did the right things to stabilize him and get him to us."
After the baby and nurse left the bazaar, Janda and the others went back to work without knowing the baby's fate.
"I had a heavy heart," Janda said. "I was really worried about the kid and wasn't really talking to any of the guys. I was depressed because I really didn't know if he was going to make it."
Several hours later the word was passed to the troop that the baby had survived and was doing fine. The entire troop breathed a sigh of relief and gained even more confidence in their medic.
"To have a medic of that caliber with you is priceless," said Army Staff Sgt. Eric Winn, C Troop squad leader from Colorado City, Texas. "Knowing you have a medic that good with you when you go out lets you focus more on the mission at hand. I wouldn't want anyone else working on me out there."
Janda and his team have visited the baby since saving his life and he has recovered and is doing well.
"It was great to see him healthy," Janda said. "I'm just happy I was able to figure out the right things to do, and am happy he gets to live a healthy life."
.No time to write but wanted to share a few photos from last night
UPDATED - see below
Check back tomorrow and I'll tell you what's so special about the photo - well, about the guys in the photo. Wanna give you some time to try to figure it out.
UPDATE: What's so special about these guys? In many ways, nothing really. They are all just a bunch of great all American guys. One married the love of his life a week or so after this photo was taken. Just this past week one became a dad for the first time. A couple have wonderful girlfriends. One has been married for some time and has children. And the others are single. I can't figure out why but...they are. Come on ladies - if I was only younger I'd grab one of them up right away. It would be difficult to pick which one.
So what's so special about this group? Four are Wounded Warriors currently being treated for injuries sustained in two separted battles - significant battles. Additionally, one is a Medal of Honor Nominee. One is a Distinguished Service Cross Nominee. One was awarded the Silver Star. I know four of them have received Purple Hearts. I have no idea how many ARCOM's with V device and ARCOMs between them all.
If you saw them in a restaurant, walking down the street, etc. and didn't know all that that I've told you about them you might be able to guess that a couple of them are wounded. Maybe. All of their wounds were substantial. One to the point that I've forgotten how many times I was told he "died". That particular Soldier has re-enlisted and is going back to his unit. WOW!
Yep. pretty damn special group of guys. And there are SO MANY MORE like them around this nation and serving around the globe. We are such a fortunate nation but I wonder just how many Americans really give a shit. (Sorry for the language - just how I feel).
I realize how fortunate I am to know these men and many of their fellow paratroopers. And they know how much I love them, respect them and appreciate them for who they are. We don't talk about awards but I sure as heck know how much each of them and so many of their battle buddies have given on behalf of this nation.
My dear friend kev is off to Iraq tomorrow. Twelve months without kev. Not fun to think about.
Be safe buddy and never forget how much I love and respect you. Can't wait to share more great times and create lots more wonderful memories.
The espresso machine is packed and ready for shipment once I get that address. LOL
From Defenselink
Operation Homefront Names First Military Child Award WinnerBy Sharon FosterAmerican Forces Press Service | |||
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WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – An Army family member has earned $5,000, a laptop computer and a trip to the nation’s capital as the first Military Child Award winner for a national troop-support organization.
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