Saw a great movie today "Taking Chance"

The movie is the story of a Marine that was killed in Iraq being escorted home for his final post. It was moving to say the least.

The story seemed to bring to light for me a couple of times in my life that I almost was part of a similar story. Fortunately this was not for myself directly but for family members.

The first was when my brother was injured in Vietnam. At the time my wife, Karen and our new son Craig were living in Hawaii. I was stationed on the USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642). I received a call from my dad and he said that he had just been notified that Tim had been seriously wounded and was not getting much more info. Over the next couple of days we found that he had been taken to Japan for medical attention. This was not good news since if they were at all transportable they were being brought back to the states.

Long story, short story, my next door neighbor was a Col in the Air Force and flew the airborne command aircraft that were always in the air around Hawaii. I asked him if he knew how I might jump a flight to Japan to see my brother. He stated that he happens to be going to Korea with a stop in Japan in two days and I had a seat if I wanted it. The next was to get permission to go on such a trip. With my security clearance at the time this did not look good but the CO granted permission so I was ready to go. When I got to the airport to leave I found that the aircraft's only passenger beside me was an Air force General and his aide.

When we arrived in Japan there was an Air force vehicle waiting and it took me to the hospital where my brother was being taken care of. Fortunately by the time I got there he had gotten through most of the hard part and was on the road to recovery. He did loose 90% usage in his right arm but was alive.

I spent a couple more days there with him and found out a bit about the ward he was in. It turned out that it depended on where you were as to the likelihood of your survival. The bad part was that if you were on the other side of the nurse station that was in the middle of the long barracks type of ward your chances were minimal. Most of the time the guys there were being kept alive until parents or relatives could arrive and visit with them. Very depressing.

I got to know one of the nurses and asked her how she did it. She explained you “get use to it”. She said that in her off time she taught a judo class and that helped.

The second time happened on a Saturday 15 November 2003 a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. I had remarried and my stepson, Jeff, was in Iraq flying Blackhawk helicopters. We were all very proud of him, especially his mother Jan. I got up and had turned on CNN to see what was going on when I saw a news flash that two Blackhawks had been shot down in Mosel. This is where Jeff was stationed. They continued to flash news for the next couple of hours. The next major news to us was that it had been confirmed that one of the helicopters was flying on a quick-reaction support mission. This again was what Jeff had been doing. These helicopters were meant to fly low, at night, with extra gunners in the back to give quick response support to the ground troops. Also they had received news that at least one of the helicopters was down with all lost aboard. By this time we are glued to the TV and Jan was going nuts worrying.

The way the Army is set up is that if there is something going on the chain of command in the form of the wives begin a phone chain to let those in their group know as to what is happening. Time went on and we were afraid to call Jeff’s wife hoping not to upset her.

About an hour later Jeff’s wife Laura called. Jan picked up the phone and in a min she let out a yell and she could not say anything. I took the phone and all I could hear at first was her saying that “it was him”. After a little probing she did get out the good news. Jeff was the pilot of one of the helicopters. He was taken to the hospital and someone there had given him a cell phone and he had been able to call his wife and tell her he was ok.  The miracle was that he only had a few stiches and a sore back.

Later we found out Jeff had been helping ground troops chase some people that had done a drive by shooting at troups that were guarding a bank. Jeff was brought in to provide extra fire power. However there were people on the roof of one of the buildings and they were able to fire an RPG which hit the tail of his helicopter. There was another helicopter in the area and it was hit also with loss of all on board. He said that all he saw was a bright light and the aircraft became totally uncontrollable. They were less than 400 feet off the ground when they were hit but somehow he was able to pull just enough collective to semi slow their landing on the roof. His co-pilot and most of the guys in the back were killed. The two crew chief/gunners did survive. Jeff’s life was saved when his crew chief dragged him from the aircraft that was burning. At the same time they were taking small arms fire from the bad guys.

There were 18 casualties on that day in Iraq. All from the two helicopters crashing. There were 11 on the other helicopter and 7 on Jeff's helicopter that died.

The names and pictures of the guys that were there are here on the 15 November 2003 date.
Honor the Fallen - November 2003

Jeff has been promoted to W4 and has done 4 more tours in Iraq.

Tim went to law school, met his wife, who is also an attorney, and set up practice in Northern Idaho.

Back to the movie, I would highly recommend everyone seeing it and to appreciate the care that is taken to provide honor and respect to those that have given their all.