Support the troops, indeed

[Ian David]

Support the troops, indeed
by: Charley on the MTA
Mon Jun 25, 2007 at 11:58:55 AM EDT

This is just unbelievable: We ask soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and in return, what do they get? Your family in poverty. Read this and tear your hair out -- here's the story of a guy who's blinded and quadriplegic from war:

TAMPA, Florida: He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.

Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain. (...)

"They told us, 'Prepare for his service.' That's how bad he was," said his father, Joseph Briseno Sr., a retired career Army man.

But he survived. From Germany, he went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, then to McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. In December 2003, he went home, to Manassas Park, Virginia, where his parents, Joseph Sr. and Eva, quit their jobs to care for him.

"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet.


More:
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7752