With a twist on Mr. Stein’s wonderful/horrific posts about people who should be killed this week, I offer up a story of someone who deserves all kinds of praise and recognition:

Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford.

This link tells us a story of incredible courage, devotion, and teaches the true meaning of patriotism.

Bradford, who grew up in Winchester, Ky., and Dinwiddie, Va., had made up his mind that he was going to deploy as many times as the Marines wanted him to when he was hurt a few months into his first tour of Iraq.

A rifleman, he was on patrol in Al Anbar province and trying to help clear an area of roadside bombs when one of them exploded right under him the afternoon of Jan. 18, 2007.

The explosion cost this devil dog a lot.  Many of us would say it cost him virtually everything:

Bradford lost his eyesight, and he had a fractured right hand and fragmentation wounds to the lower abdominal area. But what he said he hated the most was losing his legs. He required amputations below the knee on the right leg and above the knee on the left.

But this tough-as-nails Marine didn’t let it stop him.  He summoned reserves of inner strength at which most of us can only marvel.  He fought through rehabilitation.  He learned to use artificial limbs, to navigate while blind, and even completed a 10 mile hike (blind with no legs), in the desert, during the Bataan Memorial Death March. 

And on Wednesday, April 7th, Cpl. Bradford asked for more.

After all he’s been through, the only real regret Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford says he has now is not being able to return to combat duty in Iraq.

But Wednesday, Bradford, 23, made Marine Corps history, becoming the first blind double amputee to re-enlist. In keeping with service tradition, Bradford was honorably discharged and allowed to say a few words as a civilian before re-enlisting.

“Sign me up, sir!” he told Lt. Col. David Barnes, who administered the oath of enlistment, extending Bradford’s military career by another four years.

…

He’ll soon leave Fort Sam Houston to work with other wounded Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

After all that has been taken from him, all that he has been through, this real American hero is going to devote his life to helping other wounded battle brothers, and strive to keep on serving his country and his Corps.

Well done soldier!  You sir, are a damn fine American and we are, each and every one, proud to call you ours.  Wish we had a hundred more, just like you.

Were I to meet this man, this soldier of incredible will and drive, I’d have only one question to ask him:

How many V-22 Ospreys does the military have to bring in each morning to help you lift those giant space rocks you call testicles?

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