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thedrifter
05-24-09, 08:29 AM
A new and uplifting mission

By: GARY WECKSELBLATT
The Intelligencer

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

President John F. Kennedy


Travis Manion never had to be asked. Neither did Eric Greitens.

The two men, one a Marine first lieutenant, one a Navy SEAL commander, forged a bond on a rooftop in Fallujah, Iraq, where they attempted to draw fire to enable the rescue of wounded men in their units following a suicide truck bombing.

It was March 2007. "Travis and his team were the first to come to our aid," Greitens recalled. "Travis wouldn't leave until everybody else got out."

As Greitens, who was injured in the blast, was taken away, he asked Manion, "Do you have my back?"

Anyone who knows anything about Manion would never doubt the response: "Yes, I've got your back."

It was the last time the two men saw one another.

Manion, in a reconnaissance battalion embedded with the Iraqi soldiers, was killed by a sniper April 29, 2007. He was 26.

As the nation celebrates Memorial Day Monday, Greitens is one of many who won't allow the memory of Tom and Janet Manion's son to fade away.

His foundation, The Mission Continues, founded with his combat pay, has partnered with The Travis Manion Foundation, to empower wounded and disabled veterans to continue to serve their country and communities as citizen leaders at home.

"This is a small way for me to pay back Travis for what he did for his Marines and his country," said Greitens, TMC's volunteer chairman and CEO.

The unique outreach program awards Fellowships that allow veterans to volunteer full time at a local charity. Each Fellow is awarded a monetary grant to offset cost-of-living expenses.

"Travis worked hard for the honors he received, and those are the people we're looking to touch," Janet Manion said. "This is not a handout. The individual works to get this. It gives them their dignity, their self-importance back. These people want to continue their service, and we challenge them to do that."

So far, four Fellows have been named in Manion's honor. Greitens thought so much of Manion that he named the first Fellow, Mathew Trotter, before the groups even partnered.

"Eric was very affected by Travis' death," Janet Manion said. "He knew the type of person Travis was."

Travis Manion, who grew up in Doylestown, is one of three servicemen on The Mission Continues Wall of Honor. Last December, outside the Bucks County Courthouse, Manion posthumously received the Silver Star and Bronze Star with Valor.

Trotter served for eight years as an aviation technician in the Navy, deploying multiple times during the Global War on Terror. He worked on the USS George Washington, the first aircraft carrier that started bombing runs in Fallujah.

Following an accident on the ship, he lost ligaments and tendons in both ankles and has undergone six reconstructive surgeries.

Trotter works with the Triple H Equitherapy Center in Pipe Creek, Texas, formulating programs that not only address the therapy needs of veterans, but also trains them to serve as mentors for troubled youth.

"Any disabled veteran, any branch, any war, any time," he said. "I'm here for them."

He's worked with veterans with amputations and head wounds from The Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio and burn victims from Brooke Army Medical Center.

Trotter said he's met Manion's parents at several events. "They're a very large-hearted family," he said. "They thank me for what I'm doing. I tell them I'm trying to make a dent where your son made a bigger one."

After a six-month Fellowship, Triple H "hired me full-time to run the program."

He'll never forget the day. "It was Veteran's Day 2007," he said.

The other Manion Fellows are Marine Master Sgt. Dionisios H. Nicholas, who suffered three major service-related spine injuries during his career; Army Pfc. Perry Green, who injured his back during two combat tours in Iraq; and David Pickens, named a Fellow just last week, who suffered a back injury while on vehicle patrol in Iraq as a member of the Army Reserves.

"Instead of erecting a bronze statue that has a physical permanence, the Manion Foundation has erected in my mind a far more permanent legacy of service," said TMC co-founder and executive director Ken Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot who used his disability pay to help found TMC with Greitens. "This is not just window dressing. They are really carrying on Travis' mission in their own work. If there is any better way to remember Travis' legacy, I can't think of it. Statues crumble, but service lives on and it lives in real people."

Nicholas volunteers as an assistant park ranger at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. He suffers daily from permanent nerve damage, numbness and chronic pain.

While Manion's motto was "If not me, then who," Nicholas' catchphrase is, ''Go forth and do good."

Green is a volunteer for the Veterans Administration in Augusta, Ga., driving wounded veterans to and from medical appointments.

"I get a lot out of it," he said. "I get to hear a lot of old war stories. But it's an opportunity to serve these veterans and show them they're not forgotten."

In his TMC impact statement, Green wrote, "I firmly believe that one person can make a difference in the community. One community can make the difference in a city. One city can make the difference in a state. One state can make the difference in a country. One country can make the difference in the world. All it takes is one."

Pickens' Fellowship allows him to continue his work as head coach of the Baltimore Broncos semi-pro football team. In this role, he not only teaches the game of football, but also strengthens the lives of his players. The team provides an outlet for underprivileged youth, through football. They also provide mentoring and a venue for players to get scholarships to college.

"I never met Travis, but his life has affected mine," Harbaugh said. "By witnessing the service that these Fellows are bringing into their communities I'm inspired. This proves the point that wounded veterans still have a heck of a lot left to give their country."

Gary Weckselblatt can be reached at 215-345-3169 or gweckselblatt@phillyBurbs.com.

With pix of the 3 Fellows: Mathew Trotter (1 "t" in 1st name), Dionisios H. Nicholas and Perry Green. Trotter is the centerpiece pic.

Also available, mugs of Travis Manion and Eric Greitens. Try to get the Travis pix out front too, so the package has a more military presence.

On the Web:

TravisManion.com

MissionContinues.org

May 24, 2009 02:30 AM

Ellie