DEAR EDITOR:
Our family would like to formally thank the City Council, the
Veterans Administration, and all our friends both old and new for
their help in our time of need.
DEAR EDITOR:
Our family would like to formally thank the City Council, the Veterans Administration, and all our friends both old and new for their help in our time of need. The worst thing that can happen to a parent of a soldier is to get a phone call from the Army indicating that your son or daughter has been wounded in action. Your whole world comes crashing in around you, you walk around dazed and frantic wanting to get to that soldier. This isn’t the kind of trip you plan for. In this area most of us live from paycheck to paycheck and there isn’t extra for something like this. We knew that perhaps in a few weeks we would be able to perhaps get one of us to our son. But with the generosity of the community, we were both able to go to the aid of of son in his time of need.
An enormous part of the healing process is having friends and family close if only for a short time. Cory is in the healing process now. The shrapnel is gone from his arm and leg. The flash burns to his hands have already healed. Work has begun to reconstruct the damaged area of his wrist and hand. He has an apparatus on his hand to help hold the thumb in place while the reattachment takes hold. The same piece holds the broken bones in his hand still while they heal.
Skin grafts for his hand are underway at this time and the beginning process will hopefully be well completed in about two more weeks. The bone grafts for the wrist and some fingers that received damage will take time. Although he says he will be self conscious about the final appearance, we thank God that he made it out alive.
His morale is good and we have begun to talk about his future both while in the military and beyond. Although his wounds will keep him from accomplishing goals he set for himself in the Army, and may also force career changes once out, he is strong-willed enough that if he really wants to pursue a career in the medical field, he will make it happen.
While working as a medic for the past two years , he has found a calling for that field. Cory would like us to set one thing straight, however. In the original story it was reported that after he was hit he moved from vehicle to vehicle giving aid as needed. He says when he was hit he could move out of his vehicle. He did give medical aid to a wounded comrade who was in that vehicle once he was also down. The report by his sergeant does not reflect this, but Cory states that the sergeant was in a vehicle 25 yards away. Five people can see the same thing and all five will see it slightly different.
Cory states that the information that he gave me about moving from vehicle to vehicle helping his wounded comrades actually happened two days earlier when the convoy he was in at that time was also in an ambush. At that time he was giving aid to three wounded soldiers. He says he doesn’t feel that he is any kind of a hero and shouldn’t be treated as one. He says he was just doing his job.
A battlefield medic takes a very special type of person. They quite often have to expose themselves to fire while aiding wounded. While others have the option of staying under protective cover, a medic knows that the guys he cares for in good times and bad are down and someone must reach and help them. To me anyone who serves as a medic or corpsman is very special. But then again I am just a proud parent.
We both apologize for any facts in error. For my part, it is the result of being a parent in panic still concerned about his sons wounds. For Cory’s part it was the fact that he was under very heavy sedation for pain at the time he relayed facts of the ambush to me. Once again our family thanks all who have helped us and please don’t forget all the Gilroys men and women who are presently serving in harm’s way. Every single one of them needs our support while there and also once they are home. Those especially who have been at the front, have done and seen things we can’t even imagine. All will need our support when they finally come home. Thank you all once again and may God bless all of you.
Mike & Carol McCarthy, Gilroy
Submitted Sunday, Aug. 31 to [email protected]
