Who Is Sgt Ron?

     Many of my friends and family have often requested that I put pen to paper (or key stroke to blog as the case may be) and share part of my life with them. I don't really feel like writing an entire biography at the moment so I'll just sketch in the parts that are relevant to this blog site. If enough people hound me, perhaps I shall add more later. In the mean time, however.....here goes...



     At the age of 17 years old, I enlisted in the US Army. I did this for many reasons, patriotism and a desire to serve my country, a compulsion to follow in my father's footsteps, a need to earn money for college, and a minor case of the teenage "I gotta prove I am a man" syndrome. I believe, looking back on it all, that I achieved all but the last of those goals, I found out the hard way that I really didn't have anything to prove to begin with. I only wish I had come to that realisation earlier.

     I served my country from 1986 to 2009, during which I deployed (among other locations) to combat theaters in Panama, Honduras, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq ( for both desert storm and operation Iraqi freedom). On my last combat tour in Iraq I received my final and most impacting injury.

     I won't go into the details of the incident, suffice it to say that I was injured in a road side bomb attack that has left me permanently disabled and confined to a wheelchair. I suffer from numerous arthritic ailments, permanent nerve pain, an inability to walk, psychological trauma (PTSD) and other medical conditions that make life a trial for both myself and those whom I love. Those who get to know me are amazed that despite all of this, I am grateful. It could have been so much worse.

     What others fail to realise is that I have a unique perspective on my situation. I spent YEARS in military hospitals around the globe. I have seen almost every possible injury a man or woman could sustain. My life is good. I do not dwell on what I have lost, I thank God for what he has given me.
I have retained my mental faculties, I have use of all my functions from the knees up, I can speak, think, hear and see. I have the love of one of the noblest and self sacrificing women ever to walk this earth, four wonderful children who love me almost as much as I love them, and now, FOUR grandchildren (you count too Blake you little scoundrel lol) so lovely it makes my breath catch in my chest just to look at them. I am not cursed, I am blessed.

     You asked who I am. I gave you a lengthy little rambling essay in return. Maybe I should just summarize it a bit.....

      I am Sgt Ron.....I am a wounded warrior.....I am grateful.