Flag Day
“Oh damn, that’s the Battalion Commander… come on, give him a salute… wait, why can’t I lift my arm?…” When I first started finding consciousness in the hospital, I was overwhelmed and confused. I had to be told what had happened to me multiple times, and I still wasn’t good at comprehending it. One of the first times I realized how paralyzed I had become was when my Battalion Commander, then Lieutenant Colonel Meissel visited me in the hospital while our battalion was at a training event in Yakima, WA. I vividly remember trying to salute him as he pinned the Army Commendation Medal to my medical Jonny (that open-backed hospital garment). It was so difficult being celebrated and retired from this unit. I felt like I did not deserve the award, all I did was survive. I tried to lift my paralyzed arm and it felt like I had a truck parked on it. All I could do was twitch my deltoids. All I wanted was that one last salute to my commander. That’s when it hit me. My days of b...