Soldiers’ Wishes
[Guest post by DRJ]
Pepsi-Cola and Price’s Creameries in El Paso, Texas, have started a wish program for wounded soldiers that is apparently modeled after the “Make a Wish” program for sick kids. Here are the three most recent wishes granted by the program:
“[Texas National Guard 1st Sgt. Carlos] Bonet, a platoon sergeant in Iraq, injured his spine while carrying equipment and his shoulder from firing his M-16 during an ambush. The most-recent of his five tours in Iraq took him away from home for a year and a half. He will receive a trip to Disneyland for himself and his two young daughters. “My daughters, they are very, very happy,” Bonet said.
The [family of Staff Sgt. Marc] Campuzano will be going on a cruise with their two children. “I kind of want to go on an Alaska cruise,” Campuzano said. “The kids want to go somewhere where it’s hot.”
[Staff Sgt. Lloyd] Edmond, now with a medical unit in California, asked for a diamond ring to replace his wife’s wedding band, which was stolen in a burglary while he was deployed.”
I’m impressed with these soldiers, especially that each one was seriously injured and yet their wishes are focused on their families.
– DRJ
Of course their wishes are focused outward!
It brings me a lot of joy to read this feature DRJ. It’s amazing that some people are so stubbornly selfless, but that’s what gives them happiness and a sense of personal worth. Seeing smiles on your wife and kids’ faces ought to make any man very happy.
It takes a special kind of person to join a volunteer military during war. You are reducing your safety to one factor of many. You accept that the greater unit and the wishes of the elected trump your personal needs. And yet some people thrive and are happy in that life. I’ve met liberals and conservatives and people who just don’t care about politics in the Army. I know that tons of folks in Iraq now joined under Bill Clinton and virtually all of our military would serve under Hillary. Pretty amazing stuff, compared to the self-centered ideologues in our country and the hellions we’re fighting. I think it’s what we all secretly aspire to: to be worth so much to society solely because we are noble and selfless.
I sure hope those vacations are perfect.
Comment by Jem — 1/13/2008 @ 10:32 pm
Where do we find such men?
Comment by Techie — 1/14/2008 @ 7:40 am
Reminds me of Liberty Limited, the train containing luxury rail cars owned by train buffs taking badly-wounded soldiers every December to the Army-Navy game.
In style, too:
Comment by steve — 1/14/2008 @ 2:21 pm
“Where do we find such men?”….
On every Main Street in America!
These truly are our best and finest (5 tours in Iraq? His family are the true heroes).
Comment by Another Drew — 1/14/2008 @ 6:31 pm