A couple of weeks ago, my little brother (who happens to be my biggest hero) called to talk to me about a 5K walk/run/wheel he had just completed that morning for an organization called Impact a Hero.
Impact A Hero is a non-partisan 501(c) (3) organization, created to provide a simple mechanism for individuals and corporations to help provide emotional and financial support for our severely wounded /disabled War on Terror veterans and their families.
My brother, himself disabled (but not quite a veteran yet, as he still has about a 15 months left until he retires from the US Army), didn’t want to talk about his own pain and difficulties in trying to complete the 5K…but rather he called to go on-and-on about the wounded warriors he met.
Below are a few of the pictures that my little brother took during the Impact a Hero banquet in Houston, and some of the wounded warriors’ stories.
My little brother (2nd from right) and some of his fellow Soldiers at the Impact a Hero dinner
Warriors like Sgt. Rick Yarosh:
In September 2006, Yarosh, an Army cavalry scout, was on patrol in Iraq when his vehicle was hit by a makeshift bomb. Most of his body was immediately engulfed in flames, and the young soldier was forced to escape through the top hatch of the Bradley tank. Yarosh was burned over 60 percent of his body, his face shredded; his right leg had to be amputated below the knee.
Sgt. Rick Yarosh at the Impact a Hero dinner in Houston
Here’s how Yarosh descripes the portrait of him that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery:
He captured . . . someone who is proud, someone who proudly served the nation and isn’t done with what he has got planned. It’s someone who sees opportunity ahead of him.”
My brother noted that during Yarosh’s speech in Houston, he never once stopped smiling; never once complained or blamed anybody else for his wounds
And warriors like Marine Corporal Aaron Mankin (Ret.)
Cpl. Aaron Mankin at the Impact a Hero banquet
In his own words (make sure to follow the link and read the entire story):
I was wounded two years ago. We were clearing houses and villages and pinching off the insurgency coming into Iraq from Syria when we rolled over an IED and our vehicle exploded literally 10 feet into the air. More fire came at us, and we thought we were under ambush, but it was our own munitions inside the vehicle cooking off—grenades, bullets, flares. I fell back inside the tank, and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was fire. My initial reaction was to gasp, and in doing so, I inhaled flames and smoke and pieces of burned uniform. My goggles and flak jacket protected my eyes and chest, but the rest of my upper body was on fire. I jumped out of the vehicle and tried to put myself out by rolling in the grass, but it was dry grass and it caught fire as I rolled in it. Four Marines died, 11 others were wounded. I was certain I was going to be among the dead. People say your life passes before you. For me, I saw the people who meant the most to me. My mom. My dad. I was only semiconscious. Then, my girlfriend Diana’s face popped into my head. I was thinking, These are my last thoughts. She is my last thought. And I focused on her face, because if I was going to die in war, I wanted to die with the thought of something worth fighting for, something worth dying for.
I am deeply humbled that such men exist. I am exceptionally grateful that they serve our country and fought for our freedoms as well as those less fortunate than ourselves.
Email This Post
⋅
Print This Post
I don’t know how or where I missed it, but I didn’t know your brother had been disabled.
Thank him for me, the next time you talk to him, for his service and sacrifice.
As for Cpl. Mankin’s story, his attitude is the type I’ve come to know and expect from every Marine I’ve known. Challenges are placed in our path so we can overcome them, not be limited by them.
He loves himself, which he must do in order to be loved and to love others.
He makes me proud.
Wow…
My heart goes out to them. We couldn’t be more grateful for their sacrifice and service.
It’s men like these that make us so proud to be Americans.
Patriotic Dissent is a luxury afforded to those by greater men than they.
These are an example of those great men.
May God Bless them and their families.
Many thanks to you and your brother for sharing his experiences at this most worthy event.
Wow, a soldier who is determined to serve all of his time despite being disabled and who drives himself through pain and difficulties to complete a 5K run to honor other heroes . . . I share your conviction that he is a hero himself.
You didn’t mention your brother’s name (if you did, I apologize for overlooking it), but I wanted to offer my heart-felt thanks to him and to Sgt. Yarosh and Cpl. Mankin for their valor and service — as well as to the multitude of men and women who too often go unnamed and unrecognized. God bless you, each and every single one.
Thank you for bringing these American Heroes to our attention.I have a 6 year old grandson named Connor that likes to talk with his old papa about how these men have made the world a better place.
sorry to boil it down to this level, but these guys are not only heroes…they’re super-HOT! And I am not a drooling teenager, I’m a happily-married 40 year old woman. Bravery, honor, perseverance in the face of real danger…tell me what’s more attractive in a guy than that? NOTHING
I wanted to share the following, which I received as an e-mail from a friend who served in the Marine Corps. I suggest grabbing a Kleen-ex before watching.
This is simply sublime:
Incredible acts of heroism by all!?
It is an amazing story.
I remember reading a lengthy piece on it not long after it happened.
Here is a video you must see, if you haven’t.