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Wounded Warrior Day at Seaview Pier

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wow! That one small word only begins to describe the feelings many of us felt today. One of the members from NC Angler.com, Speckhunter80 organized the second annual Wounded Warriors Pier fishing event.  The wounded warriors are from Camp LeJeune and are there recovering from wounds they received in Iraq or Afghanistan.  This special day was organized as a way for the angler community to show our appreciation for their sacrificial service to our county. 

We had 9 Marines from the Wounded Warrior Barracks at Camp LeJeune. Nine heroes, real American heroes! Not politicians, movie stars, or sport stars that we sometimes mistakenly treat as heroes. Most American will never know their names. Will never see their faces. Will never know first hand the sacrifices these guys made for us, for ME and for YOU. They don’t even know us, but they were willing to put it all on the line for us. True heroes, not that they consider themselves to be heroes, they say “We were just doing our job”. What a privilege it was to spend the day with these guys.

I’ll let some others tell the tales about the fish caught, the fish that caught a Marine…LOL. We all have some stories about the Marines we met today. That’s what I want to tell you about.

A few of their stories. One Marine was on his second tour in Iraq - and was wounded three times - not all at the same time but all on the same day. His platoon was ambushed and he took a round through his helmet and across the top of his head. Unfazed by the blood and missing section of his helmet, he saw a marine down in front of him and nobody had been able to get to him yet so with his machine gun blazing he went out into the field. That is when he took a round from a sniper in his arm. It was an Armour piercing round and shattered his right fore arm. He has had many surgeries to repair that arm, he still lacks full feeling in his hand as the nerves were severely damaged. Then later in the day he took a piece of shrapnel to the gut. This final blow destined him to a helicopter ride back to the base and then back home. He is re-enlisting in a few months when his current enlistment is up, he wants to go back on the battle field for a third time, this time to Afghanistan.

Another fellow I spoke with had his legs and knees severely damaged in Iraq during a fire fight with Syrian & Jordanian terrorist. He told me he has been in 5 years and served in Iraq & Afghanistan three times. He wants to make a career of the marines but they are saying he won’t be allowed to go overseas because of the damage to his legs. He says he doesn’t want a desk job, he wants to do his job (Infantry) and go back overseas.

These are just two of the heroes we took fishing today. Each of them have a part in keeping us free. Heroes INDEED!

Below is a group picture of the heroes and some of the volunteers: