An Unforgettable Reunion

[NYVet]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20070916_An_Unforgettable_Reunion.html




An Unforgettable Reunion
By Michael Vitez

Inquirer Staff Writer

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - For 10 weeks, ever since Cpl. Raymond D. Hennagir was blown up, he had longed for this moment, this homecoming, when the rest of his platoon would return from Iraq.
He missed them, his brothers. Hennagir, a 21-year-old Marine from Deptford, N.J., felt he had let them down by stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED), blowing off both legs and four fingers on his left hand - now, he said, in his darkest Marine humor, just "a pink mist and a memory."

Hennagir desperately wanted to mend enough so that the Marine Corps would let him travel to Camp Lejeune for this day, Aug 26.

<snip>

His fiancee, Sherri Baskerville, was beside him, wiping sweat off his face with a tissue. They had gotten engaged three weeks before he shipped out, and his first thought, once he realized his legs were gone, was that Sherri would soon be gone, too.

She was still with him, though. His aunt and uncle, Donna and Jim English, who had raised him since he was 9, were there, too.

Through two tours in Iraq, Hennagir's platoon had been his family. He had this profound need to see these Marines home safely, to be with them, to find out - was he still one of them?

<snip>

The bus arrived. The men filed off, and one by one they greeted Hennagir. Some shook his hand; others hugged him.

<snip>

The moment was as short-lived as the tears Hennagir shed, but it was also one he will remember all his days.

He was a Marine, with his unit. They were home safe.

And he was one of them.









NYVet comment- From Shakespeare's HENRY V

But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

[1monster]

1. K & R

:cry: