thedrifter
05-26-06, 07:23 AM
Marine general makes visiting wounded a personal mission
KLTV Texas
FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas Lieutenant General James F. Amos keeps a list in his shirt pocket, close to his heart.
There are about 60-thousand Marines under his command, and he just welcomed 17-thousand back from Iraq.That homecoming was sobered by the impending departure of 13-thousand for the four-year-old war.Most will return. Some will not. An uncertain number will end up on Amos' list.It's a handwritten index card updated daily with the number of Marines under his Second Marine Expeditionary Force command wounded in combat.The 59-year-old Amos says when one of his Marines returns wounded from combat -- in his words -- "There is a piece of me that says I haven't kept my bargain."
He says that what's left for him "is to continue taking care of them."And so he travels to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, outside San Antonio, and visits several dozen Marines recovering there. Returning to Camp Lejeune, North Caroline, after the trip, Amos says:"We bury our dead with great honor and dignity, but the wounded live on. They are the ones we as Americans should not forget."___On the Net:2nd Marine Expeditionary Force: http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/
Ellie
KLTV Texas
FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas Lieutenant General James F. Amos keeps a list in his shirt pocket, close to his heart.
There are about 60-thousand Marines under his command, and he just welcomed 17-thousand back from Iraq.That homecoming was sobered by the impending departure of 13-thousand for the four-year-old war.Most will return. Some will not. An uncertain number will end up on Amos' list.It's a handwritten index card updated daily with the number of Marines under his Second Marine Expeditionary Force command wounded in combat.The 59-year-old Amos says when one of his Marines returns wounded from combat -- in his words -- "There is a piece of me that says I haven't kept my bargain."
He says that what's left for him "is to continue taking care of them."And so he travels to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, outside San Antonio, and visits several dozen Marines recovering there. Returning to Camp Lejeune, North Caroline, after the trip, Amos says:"We bury our dead with great honor and dignity, but the wounded live on. They are the ones we as Americans should not forget."___On the Net:2nd Marine Expeditionary Force: http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/
Ellie