Survivor

On January 15, 2007 I put my friends on a plane headed to Iraq. Before deploying I saw some of them daily, some of them weekly and a couple I'd only met a few times. But ALL of them were MINE.... MY soldiers. I had no idea of the horrors some them would soon be facing. Late in April while on a mission the convoy two of my friends were in was hit by an IED. Sgt Castillo and two other soldiers were in front of the wrecker driven by SSG Adkins (Mike to me). When the dust settled Mike could see Sgt. Castillo trying to move away from the destroyed humvee. He immediatly ran to his aid. He applied a tourniquet to his leg, which was missing and began to stablize him because he was going into shock. Sadly the other two men with Sgt. Castillo were already gone at this time. Castillo is the only one who survived.

I saw Sgt. Castillo for the first time at the tree ceremony. I saw him from a distance and i began to sob. I grabbed my husbands arm to steady myself. I knew I had to get it together. We walked over to where he was seated in his wheelchair. At first I wasn't sure it was him. Then I read his name tag..and it was him. Funny because he didn't recognize us at first either. We began talking to him and asking how he was. We told him Mike was coming for R&R later that day and we were picking him up at the airport. He took his sunglasses off and looked at me and said, " I want Mike to meet my family. Mike saved my life. If not for him, I wouldn't be here today." Tears welled up in my eyes and began to spill over. For you see Mike is a lot like me. He had a step father who was not very nice to him. He was always told he'd never amount to anything. That he was worthless and a bum. All I could think of was how wrong that man was. Sitting before me at that moment was living proof of what a courageous and good person Mike had become. He was already an incredible person..but having saved a mans life sealed the deal. His step father would never again be able to put him down. Sadly though, he has Alzhiemers and will never have to eat his words.