April 14, 2017
Mark and I flew to Fayetteville, North Carolina last night to pick up two U.S. soldiers and fly them to Boston. Both of them are Special Forces group soldiers and one is running the Boston Marathon in honor of one of his best friends that took his own life in October of 2013.
This soldier has deployed many times to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He was fortunate to come home in one piece, despite numerous IED and artillery blasts. He sustained a TBI and had multiple concussions as a result.
After returning home from an 8 month deployment to Afghanistan in November of 2013, one week later he was seriously injured during a parachute jump. He was knocked out under the canopy and woke up as he was being dragged through the drop zone. He nearly lost his left arm at the shoulder breaking the head of his humerus off, tearing muscles and tendons and breaking his shoulder blade. He underwent a 7 hour surgery to put his arm back together, today he has 30% use of his arm.
The two friends would joke with each other about their choice of exercise, one was an avid runner and the other preferred to lift weights. Although his friend qualified for the Boston Marathon 3 times but was never in Country during the actual race, this Special Forces soldier promised himself that he would qualify and run the Marathon in honor of his friend.
The Massachusetts State Patrol and the Boston Fire department are sponsoring this soldier and another of his friends, another soldier with multiple deployments.
It was our honor to meet them both, wish them success in the Marathon and fly them up to Boston.
4/18/2017 SUCCESS! I just received this picture of his completion medal! Congratulations!