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I'm hurting, guys......

jlmartajlmarta Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,440
in Non Cigar Related
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The young warrior you see on the left in the photo above was my favorite nephew, Chase Marta. The only son of my youngest brother and sister-in-law.

The last time I saw him was at Christmastime, when he was home on leave. At that time, he was still stationed ar Ft. Benning, GA. waiting for orders. He was later deployed to a FOB somewhere in Afghanistan.

This past Sunday, he and two other soldiers were in a vehicle that encountered an IED. He was medevac'ed out and died a couple hours later. The two men with him died as well.

When I last talked with him he was telling me how happy he was with the Army. He had signed up for Ranger school but, like a lot of other young men, washed out of that very tough program. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne and was telling me of the number of times he had voluntarily bailed out of a perfectly good airplane with 70 lbs. of equipment tied to his body. He explained that after his chute opened, he'd pull a release and the equipment would drop free of his body and fall to the end of a rope still secured to him. The equipment would hit the ground just before he did. I was amazed and very proud of this young man. He'd have been 25 in July.

Side note to RCY: I smoked that Room 101 you gave me, Rick, along with an extra glass of bourbon, in Chase's honor. It seemed appropriate. It was just a pup of a cigar, not yet grown up to a churchill - or even a toro. Chase was just a pup, too, not really having a chance to see a full, rewarding life. I cried while I smoked it and I'm crying now, as I write this. I see no shame in it.

Sorry to get all maudlin on you guys but I wanted you to know about the too-short life of a very loved and brave young man.
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