[Rapier]

My son is here, sort of. He and three PJs plus another CRO are over at Andrews Institute. Andrews is probably the foremost sports medicine facility in the world. When you walk in to the huge entrance you are met by large signed pictures of athletes from all over the world, every wall ceilings to floor, who have been returned to active participation. Andrews treatments are expensive and they treat our repetitive injured GIs for free. My son is there because of his multiple fractures, neck x 3, arms x 3, legs x 2, hands x 2, wrist x 2, ACL x 3, vertebra x 5. Most are parachute landings in rocks, stumps or rubble. Marcus Lattimore is in his group undergoing rehab.

My son has lost a lot of men in his 23 deployments, most do not know this, but we have lost more Para Rescue men in Afghanistan than we lost in Vietnam and we are still in Afghanistan.

I was a member of the Honor Guard of the 101st during Vietnam. I literally buried 11 of my friends, just from my battalion. I will tell you what I told my son about his men as it applied to my friends as well; "they all died doing what they wanted to do, they could have died being run over by a taxi in NY City, but they chose to be paratroopers instead, and they died doing their job as an airborne trooper, honor them by carrying on."

Remember that, the words came from Command Sgt-Maj Huff of the 101st a MOH recipient. He and I were talking at a picnic one day and I told him I was having a problem. It might help you get through a tight spot, now and then, when the memories come calling.
Ed