Posted on 09/10/2006 8:14:26 AM PDT by knighthawk
Brian Neuman was a construction worker whose first reaction when he saw the 9/11 attacks was: "I'm going back in," and within weeks he was headed to his old Army Ranger division. "Even in combat, you don't think your entire world could change in the next minute," he said.
"I knew we were going to war after that, and I said I want to do this, to be part of this," said Neuman, 34. "I wanted to be the one signing up to go over there rather than some 18-year-old kid who doesn't know what they're doing."
He had spent four years in the Army's 1st Ranger Battalion after graduating high school in his Rhode Island hometown, but was never in the thick of battle.
In July 2002, he was at Fort Bragg, N.C., studying psych ops, or psychological operations, and Arabic language, when he met Erika Lazos, the woman who would become his wife. She was sent to Iraq in March 2003, and he was deployed to Afghanistan that November.
He did two tours in Afghanistan, then volunteered for Iraq in August 2004.
"I felt I needed to do this, I was not done," he said.
"In Fallujah [west of Baghdad] we prepped the towns around the city to get their support, dropped leaflets telling them to stay inside, and conducted feints to set the battle space in our favor," Neuman recalled. "I don't lose any sleep, I know I saved a lot of people's lives."
On Veterans Day 2004, he was in a Bradley vehicle in a convoy when arocket-propelled grenade burst in, took off his left arm, cut the pistol in his waistband in half and then killed the interpreter sitting next to him.
"Since then, my arm feels asleep," he said, touching his prosthesis with the hand of his muscular, tattooed right arm.
The onetime carpenter realized there are limitations to the high-tech artificial limb. "One day I had tears and I couldn't stop them, it broke me down," Neuman said softly. "I thought of how I could turn this into something positive."
He retired from the Army last year and works for the Wounded Warrior Project at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.
"I'm proud of the things I've sacrificed," he said. "Sept. 11 changed my life: I left my life in the Northeast, I met my wife, I'm proud I get to make sure soldiers get taken care of."
Ping
Outstanding.
But there's no Ranger "division", only the 75th Ranger Regiment, the best infantry in the world.
God bless this man and, thank you for the post.
911 has cahange a lot of us, some good but, some for bad
( DEMS ).
Another hero. My brother (a former Air Force JAG officer) was in a cushy job in Washington DC working for the FTC on 9/11. He quit his job, his wife quit her job as an auditor for the Fed. Reserve, and he signed up to go back to active duty again.
Thank you for posting this.
There are heroes like this man, my brother everywhere. I have so much pride in hearing these stories.
Celebrate FREEDOM! Buy a Gun for 9/11 !!!
You've posted two excellent threads that made me mist up terribly.
They are wonderful reminders that we have true heroes in our midst.
Thank you for these posts, especially at this time.
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