Neb. Marine now serves openly ("I am doing my best to serve honorably and proudly...)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110922/NEWS01/709229881/0#neb-marine-now-serves-openly

Published Thursday September 22, 2011
Neb. Marine now serves openly

By Matthew Hansen
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITEPhoto: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110922&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=709229881&Ref=TS&NewTbl=1&maxw=365&maxh=480

Marine Maj. Darrel Choat once volunteered to go to Fallujah, Iraq, when it was quite possibly the most dangerous place in the world.

He once quit a good gig as a U.S. Senate policy aide to join the Marine Corps, even though he was nearly twice as old as most recruits.

The farm boy from Albion, Neb., once backpacked solo through Syria, just to say he had.

None of it scared Choat as much as a paragraph he recently typed on his personal computer, a paragraph he had promised to read on national radio.

As Tuesday's broadcast neared, the 48-year-old Nebraska native paced and worried and lost sleep. He called friends and talked about whether he still had time to back out. "Should I pull the plug?" he asked them.

He didn't. Instead, Choat got up before dawn Tuesday, flipped on the radio and listened to his own taped voice reading the paragraph.

FULL story at link.

[pinto]

1. Powerful story.

:hi: