The Heart of a Ranger

We've written about Soldier organ donors and their families before.

Now meet one of these heroes at Blackfive: The Heart of a Ranger - Godspeed Corporal Benjamin Kopp

And TSO at This Ain't Hell adds a moving personal story to his post about Cpl Kopp: Deceased Ranger lives on

Rest in peace, Benjamin.

Healing Hands

U.S. Army Spc. Chad E. Brown examines a boy's wound during a dismounted patrol to a village in the Deh Chopan district in Zabul province, Afghanistan, July 25, 2009. Brown is a combat medic assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo.

The Last Night at Landstuhl

John, this is Chaplain Smith, the ICU Chaplain. I'm here with MaryAnn of Soldiers' Angels. She asked me to visit before you go home tomorrow.

I'm looking at a family photo your wife Jane sent her to print out and keep at your side. I'm sure you know it; it's the one where the baby is wearing the yellow sun hat...

I want to remind you that you are in the Intensive Care Unit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

You have your own nurse who is with you at all times, either in your room or sitting right at the door. While you are here you are never alone...

Today is Saturday, January 10th. Well, I guess it's January 11th now.

You're going home tomorrow.

The Critical Care Air Transport Team will come to get you ready for the flight early in the morning. That will take about 2 hours.

Afterwards, they will take you on the bus to the aircraft at Ramstein Air Base - just like when you came here. You will have your own doctor, nurse, and respiratory therapist taking care of you the whole time.

When you arrive in the US, you'll be going to Walter Reed Medical Center, again by bus. Your wife Jane and the rest of the family are waiting for you there.

They have been praying for you; you are on many prayer lists.

And now we, too, would like to pray for you...

Gold Star Father Robert Stokely interviewed about SFC Mark Allen fundraiser

In an update to the post below, an interview with Robert Stokely can be seen here speaking about a fundraiser for Mark (click on video to the right).

If you would like to make a donation for Sgt. Mark Allen and his family, it can be made in his name to:

Mike Stokely Foundation
100 Fountainhead Way
Sharpsburg, GA. 30277

Thank you.

* * *



Please join us in praying for SFC Mark Allen of the Georgia Army National Guard who remains in serious but stable condition at Bethesda Naval Hospital after being wounded in Afghanistan. Prayers are also requested for his wife Shannon and their children Cody and Journey, as well as for the two other Soldiers wounded in the same attack.

If you are on FaceBook, you are invited to join the prayer group for Mark.

Other stories about Mark:
Prayer request
Gold Star Father Robert Stokely interviewed about SFC Mark Allen fundraiser
Wounded Warrior's Spouse: "My husband is GI Joe in a National Guard uniform"
Two Newnan Guardsmen among three wounded in Afghanistan
Wounded soldiers arrive in U.S.
Injured soldiers helped by Soldiers' Angels
How Could I Know?

The Golden Hour

"Give us the first hour... and we'll give you the rest of your life."

- Motto of Task Force Med, 101st Air Assault Surgical Team at Bagram's SSG Heathe N. Craig Joint Theater Hospital

In a follow up to an earlier post about Bagram's SSG Heathe N. Craig Joint Theater Hospital, here's a photo essay from tampabay.com with additional images of the life-saving work carried out on a daily basis by the medical personnel there. (Caution: The last photo at the link - not shown here - is a graphic image of an amputation. You may not wish to scroll all the way down if you are unaccustomed to seeing traumatic injuries.)



U.S. medevac personnel pick up a wounded soldier in the Tagab Valley, north of Kabul, on June 4. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A wounded Afghan translator working for the U.S. military lays on a stretcher on June 4 as he is taken off a helicopter at the air base. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Sgt. Al Smoot from Harold, California and serving in Afghanistan with a U.S. Medevac team, gives CPR to a U.S. soldier on June 7 in the hospital's emergency room. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Maj. Maureen Nalen of Las Vegas, Nevada, with Task Force Med, talks with other emergency room personnel on June 2. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

U.S. medical personnel treat a wounded Afghan soldier on June 5. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A wounded U.S. soldier in the emergency room on June 7. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Spc. Jon Reed, of Woodland, California sits in bed at the Bagram Air Base hospital on June 7. Reed was wounded in an ambush. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Final Journey

Tears stream down the face of a Canadian soldier at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan as he helps carry the flag-draped coffin of a fallen comrade to a waiting aircraft to begin the final journey home. Photo and story: Drew Brown / S&S.

Sunset Vigil

The news is spread far and wide
Another comrade has sadly died
A sunset vigil upon the sand
As a soldier leaves this foreign land

We stand alone, and yet as one
In the fading light of a setting sun
We've all gathered to say goodbye
To our fallen comrade who's set to fly

The eulogy's read about their life
Sometimes with words from pals or wife
We all know when the CO's done
What kind of soldier they'd become

The padre then calls us all to pray
The bugler has Last Post to play
The cannon roars and belches flame
We will recall, with pride, their name

A minute's silence stood in place
As tears roll down the hardest face
Deafening silence fills the air
With each of us in personal prayer

Reveille sounds and the parade is done
The hero remembered, forgotten by none
They leave to start the journey back
In a coffin draped in the Union Jack


Written by Staff Sergeant Andrew McFarlane of the British Adjutant General's Corps and posted by his wife to her FaceBook page. Staff Sergeant McFarlane, 47, based at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, composed this poem last week after learning of the death of his eighth comrade within a 24 hour period.

God bless all of our coalition partners. We value your friendship and are so very proud and honored to stand with you.

‘The Bullet Magnet’ receives 4th Purple Heart

Staff Sgt. Brandon Camacho, 22, shows off his 10th Mountain Division patch that was pierced by a bullet in a near miss in April. A month later, the squad leader with the 1st Batallion, 32nd Infantry Regiment,was shot in the same arm, earning him a fourth Purple Heart for combat wounds. Photo and story Dianna Cahn / S&S.

[The bullet] tore a hole through his 10th Mountain Division patch and through a pack of cigarettes in his arm pocket, destroying all but one.

“So I pulled it out and had myself a cigarette.”

- SSG Brandon Camacho

That has got to be the coolest line evah, and I burst out laughing when I got to it. Here's part of the story, but make sure to read the whole thing.

‘The Bullet Magnet’ is back in the fight in Afghanistan
By Dianna Cahn, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, August 4, 2009

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Staff Sgt. Brandon Camacho was in a “pissing contest” with the enemy. He shot one guy, then another popped up.

He threw a grenade, but it bounced off the man and exploded in a ditch.

As the squad leader then zigzagged through a field, he felt someone tug at his shirt sleeve. Hours later, after the firefight, he’d discover that a bullet had whizzed right through it, narrowly missing his bicep. It tore a hole through his 10th Mountain Division patch and through a pack of cigarettes in his arm pocket, destroying all but one.

“So I pulled it out and had myself a cigarette,” Camacho says, holding the patch over his arm. Then he lifts the patch to expose a scar. It’s not from that bullet in April, but from another one a month later, earning the 22-year-old his fourth Purple Heart for wounds in a war he just won’t quit.

Struck by shrapnel during heavy mortar bombardment in Iraq in 2003, Camacho has since been grazed by one bullet, hit in the shoulder with a tracer round and finally, in June, shot in the arm. His men call him “The Bullet Magnet” and joke that since all his injuries have been on his left side, if they just stand to his right, they’ll be fine.

The most received by one person is eight, according to various sources, but receiving four remains a rare occurrence.

Read the rest of the story about his prior injuries, and about some of his buddies who didn't make it back.

JBAD Medevac

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Angela Nolan, a medic assigned to C Company, 1-168th Aviation Regiment, check an intravenous valve during medical evacuation flight out of Jalalabad, Afghanistan on July 20. Joint Combat Camera Afghanistan Photo by Sgt. Teddy Wade.

Long live the Coalition!

While hanging out with a couple of Polish patients this weekend, I excitedly told them their new neighbor across the hall was a Romanian. As Americans, we tend to believe all these "foreigners" want to meet each other - and the fact is, they usually do.

Just then I saw the Romanian guy walking into his room so I excitedly called him over. One of the Polish Soldiers stood up, went over to him, and with a big smile on his face said,

"Jestem Polak!"

Well, the Romanian guy looked at him like "so what, Bud" and deadpanned,

"Eu sint din Romania."

Then basically turned on his heel and walked out.

"Ah, yes," quipped the Polish guy with a wry look on his face. "The Coalition!"

It was pretty funny. But maybe you had to be there...

Welcome Home, Captain Speicher

Capt. Michael Scott Speicher went missing the first night of Operation Desert Storm, when his F/A-18 went down in Iraq. The Navy announced August 2 that his remains had been located by Marines in Iraq's Anbar province. US Navy photo.

We never forgot about you, nor did we give up. God bless you and welcome home, Captain Speicher.