Posted on 08/19/2006 8:24:59 PM PDT by budanski
BLOOMINGTON -- U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton lived with the possibility of dying every day during the 32 months he served with Special Forces in Iraq. The Bloomington man was shot at by insurgents, sent to minefields to disarm explosives and once had a rocket-propelled grenade come within feet of ending his life.
After three tours of duty in the desert, the 50-year-old former ROTC instructor finally returned home to his wife and five children on Memorial Day.
Within days, the family’s joy turned to sorrow as Spanton was hospitalized with a mysterious illness. Doctors later diagnosed him with cancer of the liver bile ducts and now say he has six months to live.
The illness was crushing to the family, but Spanton keeps it in perspective after serving with some soldiers who never got to come back home.
“I feel lucky,” Spanton said this week as he draped an arm around the shoulder of his 9-year-old daughter, Megan. “I could have gotten killed while I was over there (in Iraq) and not gotten to say goodbye to my family. This way, I’m lucky. How many people get to say goodbye to their kids, their wife and their family? You don’t like the short timeframe, but it’s at least a timeframe.”
Much has changed during the last three months for the Spantons. Fighting cancer through chemotherapy and readying the family for the day they all know is coming has made the summer difficult, said Julie Spanton, Dirk’s wife.
Fresh tears came to Julie’s eyes Thursday as her husband donned his uniform to accept the Army’s Legion of Merit Award and Combat Action Badge at his home in Bloomington.
“It’s the first time he’s put his uniform on since he’s been back from Iraq,” Julie Spanton said with tears streaming down her face. “He’s lost 40 pounds already, and he’s very disgusted with how he looks in his uniform.”
The Legion of Merit Award honors Spanton for his more than 23 years of meritorious service spent serving in positions of increasing responsibility in the Illinois National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve.
Army officials presented Dirk Spanton with the awards Thursday. Julie Spanton said her husband is a low-key person who initially asked the Army to put the awards “in the mail.” His superiors turned down the request.
Dirk Spanton is proud of what he and other military personnel accomplished in Iraq. Many of the positive images of Iraqis and Americans working side by side to rebuild the nation aren’t shown in the media, he said.
Doctors believe the cancer had been spreading through Spanton’s body for a while, but the symptoms of the illness — back soreness and fatigue — were masked by being in combat.
Spanton said his back was sore and he was fatigued, but it seemed natural since he was constantly wearing a 40-pound flak vest and sleeping four to six hours per night.
Moreover, Spanton said he felt strong before falling ill days after he returned home. In March, he was bench-pressing 205 pounds in repetitions of 10 several times a week. He weighed 188 pounds then.
That seems like ages ago.
Now, Spanton spends each moment he can with Julie and his five children, Ken, 24, Randy, 20, Derek, 17, Craig, 15 and Megan.
Doctors originally said he’d have two months to live after he was diagnosed, but have since changed their estimate to six months.
Part of that is due to the chemotherapy, which leaves him exhausted. But doctors are hoping it’s shrinking the deadly tumor inside Spanton.
“I’m hoping for a couple extra months, maybe longer,” Spanton says. “I’ll take whatever I can get.”
Dirk Spanton
Age: 50
Occupation: U.S. Army Special Forces (Civil Affairs Advance Detachment) serving in Iraq for last three years
Rank: Colonel
Years of service: 23 in Illinois Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve
Family: Wife Julie, 44, and children Ken, 24, Randy, 20, Derek, 17, Craig, 15, and Megan, 9
U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton, left, receives the Combat Action Badge from retired U.S. Army Col. Tom Gorski, right, as U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Hettich, center, reads off the commendation order during a ceremony in the Spanton home, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006, in Bloomington, Ill. Spanton, 50, survived three tours and 32 months in Iraq, and since returning home on Memorial Day he has found out that he has just months to live because of cancer. (AP Photo/Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)
U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton, gaunt from chemotherapy, gets a kiss from his wife, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Julie Spanton, as U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Hettich, right, looks on during an award ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006, in Bloomington, Ill. (AP Photo/Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)
U.S. Army Colonel Dirk Spanton, right, watches as his sons, from left: Randy; Craig; Ken and Derek, help prepare snacks following a commendation ceremony held in his Bloomington, Ill., home on Aug.10, 2006. Spanton survived three tours and 32 months in Iraq, only to come home and find out he has just months to live because of cancer. Now, he spends every spare moment with his family which includes his wife, Julie, and daughter Megan, not shown. (AP Photo/Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)
U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton's uniform hangs in the living room of his home as he waits on the couch, right, for guests to arrive, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006, in Bloomington, Ill. Spanton, who served with the Special Forces in Iraq, returned home on Memorial Day and found out shortly afterward that he has just months to live because of cancer. (AP Photo/Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)
An update to the heroics of this man....
thanks, La Enchiladita
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/10/14/news/120056.txt
Bloomington man loses battle with cancer
By M.K. Guetersloh
mkguetersloh@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON - U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton didn't like the hand he was dealt in life, but he made the best of it without complaint.
Spanton, 51, of Bloomington died Friday after losing his battle with cancer. Services are scheduled Tuesday at Carmody-Flynn Williamsburg Funeral Home, Bloomington.
Spanton served 32 months with the Special Forces in Iraq and was diagnosed with cancer of the liver bile ducts shortly after returning home on Memorial Day.
"The man didn't complain," said his wife, Julie Spanton. "He just didn't like what he was dealt, but he didn't whine or complain. He just pushed through the best he could."
Julie Spanton said the past few months have been tough but the family is getting through it. The couple has five children, Ken, 25, Randy, 20, Derek, 17, Craig, 15, and Megan, 9.
"He is a tough fighter, and his family is, too," she added.
Spanton served three tours of duty in Iraq. After the story of his fight with cancer was first reported, the community response was "really wonderful," Julie Spanton said.
"It made him feel good to know that the work he did was appreciated," she said.
However, she added, her husband did not understand why people kept calling him a hero.
"He would say to me, 'What am I missing? I didn't do anything. I was just doing my job,'" she recalled. "And I would tell him, 'You were doing a hero's job.'"
Although the family knew the end was coming near, she said his death caught the family off-guard. She added the former ROTC instructor stayed true to form.
"In the military, you always try to have the element of surprise," said Julie Spanton, also a member of the Army Reserve. "We thought we still had a few more days."
After returning home from Iraq, Spanton spent the summer fighting the cancer through chemotherapy. Doctors estimated Spanton had about six months to live.
Symptoms of the cancer such as back soreness and fatigue were easily dismissed as a result of Spanton's work in Iraq, where he wore a 40-pound flak vest and slept four to six hours a night. Doctors believed the cancer had been spreading for a while.
Spanton served more than 23 years in the Illinois National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve.
In August, Army officials presented Spanton with the Army's Legion of Merit Award and Combat Action Badge.
How to help
A fund has been established for the family of Col. Dirk Spanton.
Memorial contributions can be mailed to
Dirk Spanton Family Trust
P.O. Box 26
Northbrook, IL 60065
Also,
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2006/08/dying_soldier_f.html
This man has been a blessing to all who knew and served under him. His attitude toward his time on this earth is wonderful. He has done his job here, and God has other logistics for him.
Bless his family and friends. He will be missed.
Yes. I agree.
Perspective in life is important, and I try like hell to emulate a man like this.
May God keep U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton in His everlasting peace and comfort his family. Thank you for your brave and unselfish service, you're very much appreciated.
God Bless such dedicated and brave Americans, we need them ever so much.
Prayers for the Colonel.
Thank God for this hero. I join in prayers for all the loved ones.
Carolyn
Colonel, I, and we, stand in awe and unbounded pride and salute you and your family.
Ladies and gentlemen......before you, a family that makes America great.
God Bless.
Thank you, bitt. That pantagraph article was the one I found too.
I want to thank U.S. Army Colonel Dirk Spanton's family for supporting his service, including his three deployments to Iraq. You are all great Americans, Mrs. Spanton and children.
He was such a fine man who lived a highly honorable life, and what he gave to me and you and all of us is truly immeasurable. God gifted us in the person of Dirk Stanton and then God called him home.
He is surely greatly missed here, though.
With greatest respect and appreciation, Col. Spanton, may God bless your soul in Heaven.
There just has to be a special place in heaven for Colonel Spanton and all of the warriors like him.
His story should be required reading in each and every school in America.
"..and what he gave to me and you and all of us is truly immeasurable."
That it is. Sacrifice.. with true humility.. in the highest sense of those words.
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