You Get Well, sir!!! -- j

A trip to the beach might be just what this old man needs. Some fresh salt air and sunshine.

You guys have a great time and we'll chat about servicing jets when you get back.

Good grief! Breathe deeply and feel better!

star, I just fixed bufs and tanks at a rapid rate, rode
my harley to the alert pad at high speed to help make
good scores on operational readiness inspections,
and had to jump a cable once when the bike couldn't
stop ...... and then did the 4 wheel drive thing with
the civil air patrol, training kids and evaluating CAP
operations ... for the latter years. I've been lucky!
had wheelchair life only after breaking my right leg
2 years ago. broke my right arm (big bone) during
motorcycle safety training before that, and broke
both bones in my left arm in P.T. for the broken leg.
to this day, the bike safety folks still think that I just
sprained my right wrist. never went to the Dr. for that.

my wife and I are getting ready to go to the beach
for a week, starting saturday, and I wish that we
could take you with us. there is room in the car,
and we can put your wheels on a trailer.

just know that there are many of us on your side,
star, and breathe deep (remember nights in
white satin) as you heal, OK???

Thank You For Your Service!!! -- j

Deep breaths...literally. yell at the back 40. Clears out the lungs :)

I guess I'm feeling particularly nostalgic today. I really never go into as much as wrote there. ("Behind these Doors Demons Dwell". :^) This not my normal train of thought. I've got a case of pneumonia right now and I'm confined to my bed. It tends to make me thoughtful on the shortness of life - even for a old soldier like me.

what nonmooch said

I am reading this, just shaking my head, and astounded at what happened to you. You seem, in my opinion, to live your life with much zest and for that, you deserve respect. Many would not have chosen to challenge themselves to go forward boldly through their lives after such a traumatic injury. That word sounds too trite, injury.
But you have. :-) There's a lot to be said for that.

wow. what a life you've had....It makes your "I am John Galt" video even that much more powerful

Again, thank you for your long service, my friend.

I didn't have the chance to go to college after high school. I was the oldest of 5 kids and even though Dad worked 8hrs a night at a factory job and 8+ hours a day building houses and doing rental remodels, there wasn't ever the cash needed for college. No grief over it because it just was the way it was.

So I joined the Navy as I started my senior year and graduated early since I already had all my requirements finished. That placed me as an armorer's mate on river patrol boats. That only meant that I maintained all the weapons and manned a M60 amidships.

These weren't the swift-boats that gained some fame a few years ago, our boats were larger, about twice as long, were slower, carried a larger crew and were armed to really defend themselves whereas the swift-boats would attack based on being fast enough to rush in and hit a target and get away. Our boat would move along the waterways checking junks for arms and if attacked, we could bring a lot of firepower to the job.

Usually the swift-boats looked for trouble spots along the shore and depended on their speed to get away or to attack with. When they found a concentration of enemy, we'd be called in to do a joint strike, provided we had enough draft to not get hung up.

After I got back stateside it was GI Bill time for college, get married, have kids and after graduation I was commissioned as 2ndLt, went to jump school and since I was prior service I was allowed to try out for Ranger School. That allowed me to be promoted to 1stLt and I was allowed in the 75th Ranger Battalion for a few years.

In 1983 Operation Urgent Fury I led a platoon of the finest soldiers in the world as we jumped onto the south beach. The rest of that was history.

On our return I was given orders to help field one of the newest systems in the Army and headed off for Ft Sill OK. for more training. After 7 months I was finally given orders to form with our battery of men who were finishing training and we all headed to Bamberg Germany where we were attached to the 76th Field Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division becoming "C" Battery 1/76th FA 3rdID. This was the first time this unit had been formed since being closed at the end of WWII. My Father also had served in the 3rd ID during WWII so this held some special meaning for me.

Then on 04 june 1985 I made a spot inspection of the motor pool where I saw one of our launchers with a camo net tie-down strap dangling from it's roof, so I climbed up to re-tie the strap before the commander saw it. As I was tying it I was "instructing" the new crew chief on how it was to be tied down. When I finished I stood up straight and lost my balance and fell the 12ft down to the concrete floor, where I landed butt first breaking one hip, the pelvis, crushing 2 vertebra and fracturing 2 more severing my spinal cord and compressing it in 2 other places. Ending my military career.

Oh, I had another year and a half on the payroll as I was rehabbed to a new life in a wheelchair, but for all intents, it was over and I faced a much scarier life ahead - as a civilian, eventually a businessman, both successfully and unsuccessfully, a college adjunct prof of history and art in a Midwest Jr College (talk about a mistake) and a few other things leading to this day.

p.s., star;;;; I forgot about your "jet driver" comment
when I got to the serious content, above .......

I "enlisted" in rotc in engineering school and had a
bunch of my college paid by y'all taxpayers, and Thank
You!!!

after rotc, I had a 6-year obligation -- 2 years active,
4 years reserve. I opted to stay 4 years active, and
had the option to go to pilot training. I declined
the offer, since I wanted to be an engineer -- since
I did not know that pilots have to BE engineers to
a very great extent. youthful ignorance. they sent me
to aircraft maintenance, and boy did we!!! when the
pilots saw that I had signed an aircraft off as safe
for flight, I could give them a real explanation.
then, when they came home with "discrepancies",
I could say, "You Broke It!" with a wink and a smile!

some days, I wish that I had made the choice to fly.
I did better than the guys who were headed there,
they said. oh well....... -- j

p.p.s. I stayed for 24 years reserve, by the way.

You're very welcome. :-)
I know what you mean.

Thank you! I intend to look that up now. :-)

If interested in biomedical engineering, start out by looking at the
following TED talk by Anthony Atala of Wake Forest, probably
the leader in the field.

http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_p...

My pleasure. I love seeing where it has led!

This is really fascinating stuff. I'm going to pursue so e reading on my own about. The science behind it is intriguing and has piqued my curiosity to learn more.

"nma, we appreciate you and your sharing this post!!!"

Dittos!!! Your posts and "at-a-boys" are so appreciated.

There are times when I post something I "thought" was important, but there would be no response and you just wonder if anybody saw it. Then there will come a reaffirming post from NMA. Thank you.

There are some resorbable stents out there.

Yes! we love to remember gladly, and celebrate
the camaraderie of the military -- those who hate
war the most, among us.

my sister is an artist, even good enough to open
disney world as a sidewalk sketcher, years ago ...
my love for has always been strong (know the song
"sister's keeper" by pure prairie league?), and as
we get older, we grow closer by the day. her talent
is so exceptional that I just go ga-ga over her!!!
I just wish that I could share some of her work
here.

nma, we appreciate you and your sharing this post!!! -- j

ah! now, you can go to a B&B and monitor your B&B
while you're there!

thanks again for your professional advice in the
world of hardware, sir -- very happy with our new
friend here!!!

may the bluebird of happiness fly in your sunroof!!! -- j

Several biomedical engineers are getting pretty close on the neural regeneration front.

The scaffolding is designed to biodegrade inside the body after a period of time. Depending on the scaffolding material, the biodegradation time can be from hours to years, but typically on the order of a year.

There are some things the VA does better than anybody else, but those are so buried in bureaucratic nonsense that thay can be hard to get to.

Here's where they do something good - I'm certain you all have experienced the typical doctor "visit" that lasts about 45 seconds and the doctor spends more time washing his hands than talking with you. When I see my SCI Doc, I will be one of the six patients he will see that day. When I say he gives me a complete checkup each of my quarterly visits, I do mean it's complete. Any on going problem I have with my health is covered in depth and all of my records are reviewed.

In a for profit hospital, that would NOT happen. In the Minneapolis VA Medical Center there is a 50,000sf (guess) clinic devoted to SCI. No matter if they have half the beds empty, under no circumstances would a non-SCI patient be bedded in that clinic. The therapeutic swimming pool is not used by any other patients or staff. This clinic has it's own radiology unit equipped with assistive devices to roll, turn and handle patients in ways that no place I've ever seen. All this just scratches the capabilities there - and I've never seen any place like it in a civilian hospital.

Then you look at Hines VA Medical Center in Chicago - or as we know it, the hospital vets go to die in. Similar equipped, a bit older but the one time I was hospitalized there, I can't write all that was wrong about that place. I've had three vet friends go there for treatment of SIMPLE issues who died from "complications".

THAT'S a hole in the VA system that needs cleaned out.