May 4th, 2010 by xformed
First reported by me at the 60 year anniversary here.
Cpl Desmond T. Doss performed in combat at the level that earned a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Today, I’ll complete my connection to this event, which occurred 47 or 48 years ago. I noted in the May 2005 posting this bit of personal connection:
Somewhere in a box, I have a picture. It is three elementary school children and a blonde German Shepard-Elkhound mix puppy standing next to a monument. The picture was taken in 1962 or 63, and it is my two sisters and I, and our dog, Scooter.
I had forgotten, until my older sister found and scanned the long lost family photo, that our Okinawan neighbor had accompanied us into the sugar cane fields that day.
Click for the full sized image
It was here my father told us a story of a heroic act by a man who had vowed to never kill, yet he would serve his fellow man by ensuring he entered combat, as a medic. Obviously, the story stuck with me, but it was not until about a month before 5/5/2005, that the basic details came pouring back into my head. I searched the net and found I had time to create the post and do it justice. Along the way, I read of a man who not only held to his convictions that day, but since he had been a young boy, and then until (while not at the time) to the day he died in March 2007.
Rather than repeat myself, if you’re so inclined, chase this link to all I have posted about a hero I came to admire from afar.
Category: Army, History, Leadership, Military, Military History |
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March 23rd, 2009 by xformed
Ambassadors in muddy boots. This is what they do. There are many stories like this, where Americans have reached out to serve a need for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Please consider helping out in this case.
Soldier David Howell seeks medical care for burned Iraqi child
by Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal
Monday March 23, 2009, 8:16 AM
Iraqi 12-year-old Mohammed and Maj. David Howell, a physician’s assistant from a Flint-based National Guard battalion.
Le avventure di Pinocchio film
American Gangster movies
FLINT, Michigan —
In a two-room, dirt-floor dwelling shared by a family of seven in Iraq, 12-year-old Mohammed awaits word that he can come to America.
In Michigan, Maj. David Howell, a physician’s assistant from a Flint-based National Guard battalion, works to bring the badly burned Iraqi boy here for surgeries that could give him a new future in his home country.
“He asked me, in his own words, if I could help save him,” said Howell, 55, of Grand Ledge, who met Mohammed in November on his second tour of Iraq.
Mohammed received his visa a week ago but is still getting funneled through government channels for his planned visit, which could be weeks away.
Meanwhile, a team of surgeons is studying Mohammed’s photographs, going over each burn, each blister and scar, planning for a series of plastic and reconstructive surgeries.
[…]
To add some more background to this saga, read this part of the story:
Howell also learned that Mohammed’s father had worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Marines — and it cost him his life.
Insurgents tracked the family down, murdering Mohammed’s father and uncle, leaving him, his mother and five siblings without a father or income.
“You have this Iraqi boy injured as an infant and a family that has really suffered because the husband came to the assistance of the U.S. military,” said Howell, a father of three who has established the nonprofit Martyr Medical Fund for Children
to raise money for the cause. “His father was doing the right thing and lost his life because of it.
You can donate online here.
Category: Public Service |
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