here's the photo
Posted on 05/31/2008 3:55:59 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
His hearing isn’t as keen as it once was, and arthritis in his lower back is chronic.
He’s not an old man, just a 38-year-old U.S. Marine who tussled with death and won.
Marine Corps Master Sgt. Michael Burghardt of Fountain Valley, Calif., says it took him a long time to recover emotionally from surviving a roadside bomb in Iraq in September 2005. An explosives ordnance disposal expert, Burghardt was 12 inches from the blast.
Instead of counting his blessings that the shrapnel studded flat against his body instead of tearing through it, Burghardt was wracked by guilt.
The attention generated by the widely circulated photo of him flipping off the triggerman didn’t help.
Getting recognition "that I survived when I should have been dead made me feel guilty because I had lost … fellow EOD technicians who … were my friends," he said. Time and counseling helped him realize "I was still here to tell their story."
Burghardt, the previous EOD chief at Camp Fuji, Japan, until his reassignment in April, can’t imagine doing anything else, despite three tours in Iraq and the obvious job hazards.
It gives him the opportunity to serve his country, save the lives of others and play the most adrenaline-packed chess game of his life, he said.
"You’re doing your moves, the bad guy’s doing his moves, and nothing is ever the same," he said. "For people who love a challenge, this is a perfect job."
The junior EOD Marines keep him motivated, he said. "If I leave, who are they going to learn from?" he said.
here's the photo
I “got it” but I don’t think I understand it. Why would anyone in their right minds want to make this thread about anyone but the Marine?
Oh. Wait. You don’t want him to be a Mormon marine? Like that’s going to change his defiance in the face of the enemy, or change his willingness to fight for Mormon-haters, right?
Not!
Go back to sleep. I liked you better when you were comatose.
Where in the world did you get the idea that Mormons will hi-jack the thread?
It seems to me that there is a lot of thread jacking by different denominations, so why single out one group? Why not just use a blanket statement like, “I’m sick of denominational thread jacking?”
If I said my grandson was training his dog to go back to Iraq, would you automatically assume he was a Mormon and I was going to make the thread about him? Wrong answer.
I hope my grandson is as brave as the next Marine, and I wish them all Godspeed, regardless of their religious affiliation. That includes any atheists. As for the Marine in this thread, I’m very proud of him and his ability to show the enemy what he thinks of them.
So there.
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