Happy fourth of july gang!

[LRRPF52]

I've been up at Scout Camp in the High Uintah's the past 2 weeks, including the 4th. I was really missing my family as I have yet to spend 4th of July with them yet.

I've buried untold numbers of veterans in Arlington, as well as in surrounding cemeteries in VA and MD, but I've never done a flag retirement ceremony until this past Friday, the 4th of July.

When I see our Flag, I think of my friends who died in service...

SSG Troy Westberg, who I got to know in the 18D Course, after he had injured his leg badly in the Trauma Lanes, had surgery, then needed surgery again to remove gauze that Womack Army Medical Center had left in his knee. He went to 3rd Group, then died in an incident in Kuwait when they were doing live CAS training with the Navy.


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MSG Jefferson Davis, "JD"

He was one of our instructors in the 18D Course, and truly cared about us learning medicine and combat trauma management, meaning he would spend his spare time with students to help them understand the difficult course material. He went back to 5th Group and became a Team Sergeant, performed admirably in Afghanistan, then was killed in another CAS incident where a JDAM was dropped on his Team after they defeated an armored column of Taliban in Southern Afghanistan. He's on the right in this picture:



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"Smitty" SGT John M. Smith, who had reenlisted to go to NTC at Fort Irwin so he could get a break from deploying after having spent 14 months in Iraq with our Brigade in the 82nd. He was in my Platoon, a SAW gunner. He was really excited about going to Fort Irwin and being in a unit that never deployed, after all the BS he put up with in 82nd. When he got there, he learned they were 2 weeks away from deploying to Iraq.

He was riding in a vehicle with his unit, when an IED detonated, sending a fragment through his lower abdomen.

http://projects.militarytimes.com/valor/...ith/849364



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MSG Bob Horrigan



I knew him as a custom knife maker, very friendly guy. He was a really good dude, very confident, personable, and had a unique sense of youth blended with maturity.

From the book, The Mission, the Men, and Me, by former Delta Squadron Commander, Pete Blaber:

At 10,500 feet, India’s team of three stopped just short of the edge of the cliff. All three India team members laid down flat to avoid being silhouetted from below. After unshouldering his ruck, Bob H. scootched forward on his belly. He stopped behind a small pile of rubble. Canting his head slowly, he spied the valley below. His eyes and ears strained to detect any unnatural noise or movement; Bob was focused, like a man whose finely tuned autonomic nervous system is programmed to maintain perfect equilibrium between the thrill of the hunt and the thrill of the chase. Bob understood his status as both the hunter and the hunted. He liked it that way. If you could have peered back through his thermal scope, you would have seen an unmistakable gleam in his eyes – it was the gleam of pure, unadulterated courage. Courage has been called a contradiction in terms, meaning a strong desire to live manifest as a readiness to die. It described Bob and his mates to a tee.

Bob was 2 weeks away from redeploying home so he could begin the retirement process. He has an identical twin brother who he joined the Army with, and they both went to Ranger Regiment, then got out after their initial enlistments. Bob went back in and became a Ranger Instructor, then went SF, was assigned to 7th Group after completing the 18B Q-Course, and later went to Delta.
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It was these men who I thought of as we were doing the Flag Retirement ceremony, 10,400ft above sea level, high in the beautiful Uintah Mountains, on a lake shadowed by glorious peaks of majesty and serenity. It's an event I will never forget.

Men like these make me pause, hold my family a little harder, longer, and live the moment for them in every way I can muster. They make me want to be a better man, reach a little farther, try a little harder, and live life more fully.

Troy, JD, Smitty, & Bob....thank you for your lives. Words can't convey our gratitude to you for your friendship and sacrifices. May your families have peace knowing you were honorable men. We will never forget.