thedrifter
09-27-05, 06:14 AM
Sep 27, 2005
Brave Marine's Long Road Begins In La.
By JUDY HILL
jhill@tampatrib.com
In the dark, silent predawn hours, when reason sleeps and anger, doubt and fear run wild, Marine Lance Cpl. Matt Cole wouldn't be human if he didn't reflect on the past and wonder what's in his future.
Was the outcome worth the sacrifice?
Will he have a productive life?
Will he earn respect? Or pity?
Will a significant disability erode love?
Will he be able to continue pursuing his civilian dream of finishing culinary school and becoming an executive chef?
Will Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, where he worked in the French Quarter of New Orleans, ever open again?
Will he be able to do his job there if the restaurant does open, now that he must use a wheelchair?
Hurricanes Keep Coming
In the reassuring light of day, at least with people he doesn't know well, he allows little of that unease to creep into conversations.
Instead, Cole keeps a stiff upper lip -- even though the war in Iraq dealt him a cruel injury, and then Hurricane Katrina piled on with a late hit.
I wrote about Cole, 24, on Sept. 11. Katrina left him and his fiancée, Kim Eckert, stranded in Tampa with no money. They couldn't go home because airports were closed, roads were impassable and the storm damaged their house in Mandeville, La., and left it without power and water.
Cole had been in rehabilitation at James A. Haley VA Medical Center. He lost the use of his legs in May in Iraq -- his second tour in the campaign -- when a mortar round hit his amtrac.
A number of area folks, including the Rough Riders of Tampa and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, put Cole and Eckert into an extended-stay motel and gave the couple money for food and incidentals. The Rough Riders also raised about $9,000 for Cole's future use, including the lease on a wheelchair-adapted van.
Which brings me to why I'm revisiting this story.
Pass It On
Even with the second hurricane in less than a month headed for the central Gulf Coast, Cole and Eckert flew to Houston on Sept. 22 -- on their way home.
"Out of the frying pan into the fire," said Glen Sherry of the Rough Riders.
The couple refused pleas from Sherry and Lt. Col. Jim Turner, of the Semper Fi Fund, to stay in Tampa until Hurricane Rita passed.
It was risky to head in the same direction as Rita, the couple were told, and if a lack of money was their motivation to leave, they shouldn't be concerned. Their stay would be paid for.
But Cole said no.
"I'm a Marine," he reportedly told Turner.
"I can handle this, and it's time to get on with my life, whatever happens."
That's not all he said that showed courage, enormous class and selflessness.
When the Rough Riders tried to give him the remainder of the money they raised for him -- about $4,000 -- he turned it down.
"He asked us to use the leftover funds to aid other Marines and soldiers like him who have fallen into a black hole of red tape," Sherry said.
"Strength of character like this will serve this young man well, for he has a long, long road ahead."
At least Cole is now on the familiar roads of Louisiana.
Cole and Eckert arrived in Mandeville safely and on schedule, even though Rita jogged east and flooded parts of New Orleans again.
So life for a stricken soldier has resumed -- in a stricken city.
Ellie
Brave Marine's Long Road Begins In La.
By JUDY HILL
jhill@tampatrib.com
In the dark, silent predawn hours, when reason sleeps and anger, doubt and fear run wild, Marine Lance Cpl. Matt Cole wouldn't be human if he didn't reflect on the past and wonder what's in his future.
Was the outcome worth the sacrifice?
Will he have a productive life?
Will he earn respect? Or pity?
Will a significant disability erode love?
Will he be able to continue pursuing his civilian dream of finishing culinary school and becoming an executive chef?
Will Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, where he worked in the French Quarter of New Orleans, ever open again?
Will he be able to do his job there if the restaurant does open, now that he must use a wheelchair?
Hurricanes Keep Coming
In the reassuring light of day, at least with people he doesn't know well, he allows little of that unease to creep into conversations.
Instead, Cole keeps a stiff upper lip -- even though the war in Iraq dealt him a cruel injury, and then Hurricane Katrina piled on with a late hit.
I wrote about Cole, 24, on Sept. 11. Katrina left him and his fiancée, Kim Eckert, stranded in Tampa with no money. They couldn't go home because airports were closed, roads were impassable and the storm damaged their house in Mandeville, La., and left it without power and water.
Cole had been in rehabilitation at James A. Haley VA Medical Center. He lost the use of his legs in May in Iraq -- his second tour in the campaign -- when a mortar round hit his amtrac.
A number of area folks, including the Rough Riders of Tampa and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, put Cole and Eckert into an extended-stay motel and gave the couple money for food and incidentals. The Rough Riders also raised about $9,000 for Cole's future use, including the lease on a wheelchair-adapted van.
Which brings me to why I'm revisiting this story.
Pass It On
Even with the second hurricane in less than a month headed for the central Gulf Coast, Cole and Eckert flew to Houston on Sept. 22 -- on their way home.
"Out of the frying pan into the fire," said Glen Sherry of the Rough Riders.
The couple refused pleas from Sherry and Lt. Col. Jim Turner, of the Semper Fi Fund, to stay in Tampa until Hurricane Rita passed.
It was risky to head in the same direction as Rita, the couple were told, and if a lack of money was their motivation to leave, they shouldn't be concerned. Their stay would be paid for.
But Cole said no.
"I'm a Marine," he reportedly told Turner.
"I can handle this, and it's time to get on with my life, whatever happens."
That's not all he said that showed courage, enormous class and selflessness.
When the Rough Riders tried to give him the remainder of the money they raised for him -- about $4,000 -- he turned it down.
"He asked us to use the leftover funds to aid other Marines and soldiers like him who have fallen into a black hole of red tape," Sherry said.
"Strength of character like this will serve this young man well, for he has a long, long road ahead."
At least Cole is now on the familiar roads of Louisiana.
Cole and Eckert arrived in Mandeville safely and on schedule, even though Rita jogged east and flooded parts of New Orleans again.
So life for a stricken soldier has resumed -- in a stricken city.
Ellie