Former White House speechwriter @TSzuplat reconnected with a brain-injured soldier that he wrote about during the Obama years. He found that Cory Remsburg's story didn't end so neatly. Photographs by @PeteSouza https://t.co/u4yiWB0Nzr
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) November 10, 2019
He was, for a time, the most well-known veteran in America.
On the evening of January 28, 2014, Cory Remsburg, an elite Army Ranger grievously wounded in Afghanistan, sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama in the balcony of the House chamber as President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address. As one of the president’s speechwriters, I watched from the floor below, crowded among congressional and White House staff.
Nearing the end of his speech, Obama described how, on Cory’s tenth deployment, a bomb blast had thrown him into a canal, where his fellow soldiers found him facedown, underwater, unconscious, with a punctured skull. Across the country, television screens cut to Cory, with a lean build, close-cropped brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and striking in his dress blue uniform — a bow tie and a chestful of colorful ribbons and commendations…
This October 1 marked a decade since the explosion. Cory has now spent more years working to recover from his injuries than he did serving on active duty in the war zones — one of the approximately 5,000 veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq with penetrating head wounds who have returned home to live with their catastrophic injuries for decades to come. In advance of this milestone, I asked Cory and his parents for permission to follow him for the year.
I wanted to see the unvarnished reality of his life after the applause…
Over the past year, I spoke with Cory and his parents about two dozen times, in person and by telephone, often for an hour or more. I visited him at military and veterans’ hospitals and at his home in Arizona, where he granted me and photographer Pete Souza unprecedented access to his daily life. I spoke with more than 30 of Cory’s family, friends, fellow Rangers, doctors, and therapists.
I soon learned, as his brother had warned me, how dark the journey could get…
Remsburg was a 26-year-old at the height of his powers; now he’s a 35-year old whose parents are his full-time caregivers. Someone learning, over and over every day, how much he’ll never again do for himself… from driving to putting on deodorant.
SalterWobchak
related:
https://newrepublic.com/article/155699/ghosts-war-wisconsin-forest
Yutsano
Cory is in permanent war. But now the war is about trying to get back some kind of normal function when we still have no real techniques to have the brain actually heal. There is no way to replace what Cory learned as a baby that led to his development as a “normal” human. But I appreciate that he keeps fighting. And his story needs more attention.
guachi
Appropriate posting time of 11:11 on 11/11.
I’m a cryptologist in the Navy. Enlisted two weeks after 9/11. Went to boot camp in December 2001.
It’s a fairly safe profession but I’ve known people who have been killed or injured in the line of duty.
The CTRSN who was fresh out of his ‘A’ school stationed at Ft. Meade who went to Pakistan and was blown up in a terrorist attack at his hotel upon arrival because the hotel was known to be frequented by foreigners.
A fellow linguist I went to language school with married her high school sweetheart just before he went to Iraq. He died from an IED explosion during an awards ceremony as the are hadn’t been completely cleared.
Our medic on my deployment to Iraq with the SEALs. She was shot in the head on a meet and greet in town by insurgents because she was female. She survived, thankfully.
And all my shipmates who have had hard times because of life in the military. A few weeks ago, three Navy cryptologists killed themselves in one week.
I’m married to another linguist and we were stationed apart (like, thousands of miles apart) for seven of our first ten years of marriage.
Adam L Silverman
@SalterWobchak: That guy went through the grinder. The 173rd’s assignment was to clear the Korengal of al Qaeda and Taliban that were using it as a transit way and hold it. The documentary Restrepo, as well as a follow on documentary from the same filmmakers recounts what they went through.
Adam L Silverman
@guachi:
Was this in early summer 2008? In Sadr City? At the local government council facility?
balconesfault
Our military gear and medical technology have advanced so far from the days of WWII, or even Vietnam, when the injuries this soldier suffered would no doubt have killed him.
That often produces stories like this … where the life is saved, but the brain is irreparably damaged.
But it did help keep the Iraq/Afghanistan body count lower … which no doubt helped make continuing those debacles more palatable to the body politic.
schrodingers_cat
@guachi: Which languages are your specialty if you don’t mind me asking. Thanks.
In many ways we are still reliving the conflicts that arose or continued after World War I.
Luciamia
I guess Snoopy will be going over to Bill Mauldins house for a couple of root beers
The Dangerman
I’m a Lefty Left Coaster, still waking up, so I’ll limit my contribution to someone every Angeleno respects as much as anyone alive.
We miss you Vin.
WereBear
This is always the problem with “inspiration porn.” Especially if the spotlight moves on and they still need some help and support.
The Dangerman
I forget who moved here first, but, at one point, Vin Scully and Coach John Wooden were immediate neighbors. Both students of history, I can’t imagine how dinner conversations between those two must have gone.
I met Coach only once. I was able to say something like “merp, I mean, merrrrrp, ack”. I was so tongue tied. Probably like of coffee, just like now.
Mike R
Between having some really shitty moments brought back, one thing gave me a smile today. When we were being readied to leave for our trip to Southeast Asia aboard the USNS John Pope, as we climbed the ramps we were given a bag from the Red Cross and USO that cantained an apple and a couple of oranges, gum cigarettes and a candy bar, also a book that we were to read and pass on. The Troops gathered along the rails, as on the pier a band and some well wishers gathered to wave good bye or so long depending on how well one did on their tour. Well the band had a tuba and they were playing something, don’t remember what. Out the mass of 5000 plus troops and marines a single orange sailed out towards the band and specifically the tuba. Then a few more went flying, followed by hunderds probably thousands flying towards the massed band and the on lookers. They then began to scurry in all directions trying to avoid being spattered with said oranges. Of course the officers and senior nco’s went into action trying to stop the onslaught but those on board felt a bit of levity before the start of our time in the barrel. Yes we were assholes but happy assholes.
guachi
@Adam L Silverman: 2004. I can’t remember her name now or I’d look it up for more details.
I know Veterans Day is for the living, but we’re all affected by what happens to our shipmates.
Also, when people thank me for my service I sometimes tell them that the best way to serve their country is to be involved and vote. America is too powerful to be destroyed by external forces, but we can do it to ourselves.
So thank you to everyone in the BJ community.
patrick II
As sad as this story is, and I am sure there are similar stories for countless other veterans, we rarely talk about Iraqi dead and casualties except in gross numbers — over 100,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of casualties from direct or indirect effects of the war. They have their stories too, which we rarely hear told in such detail and with sympathy. This was all so Cheney could get his oil, Rumsfeld could prove how effective his new shock and awe military strategy was (not very), and oedipal Bush could be a better man than his father.
So, thank you Cory Remsburg, your heroism and sacrifice can never be amply rewarded. And, I’m sorry Iraq, our sins should never be forgiven.
Adam L Silverman
@guachi: Thanks for the info. Sounded all too similar to the same type of security CF that got one of my colleagues on a different team, a Foreign Service Officer on that brigade’s PRT, one other US personnel, and a number of Iraqis killed in Summer 2008 in Sadr City.
germy
I saw something on CBS yesterday about a treatment they called “new” even though its been used since 1925.
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/06/18/medal-of-honor-recipient-praises-revolutionary-neck-injection-treatment-for-ptsd/
Sloane Ranger
The BBC had some inserts during the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance. One was a family whose son joined the Parachute Regiment and was killed in Afghanistan, I think. Now his younger brother has joined the same Regiment and is awaiting deployment. Their grief for their lost son and concern for their living one was almost palpable.
Another insert during the actual Remembrance Ceremony was a woman whose husband was killed leaving her with a 5 year old son. She said the light went out of him when she told him and there were no services specifically geared to helping him so she set up a charity to help other children in the same situation.
On a lighter note, as the veterans were marching past the Cenotaph, several Chindits levered themselves out of their wheelchairs as they approached it and forced themselves to walk those few steps until they were past it. They were and are tough buggers!
germy
Donald Trump, Jr. after visiting Arlington National Cemetery.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-jr-new-book-about-how-he-feels-like-victim-2019-11
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: Coach used to give speeches in the building I worked in, one day I was taking the elevator up from the sub-sub-basement I worked in and Coach and a young woman got on the elevator. I just gave him a knowing smile(the young woman was talking non-stop).
Baud
@germy:
Someone thank him for his service ASAP.
PJ
@germy: Par for the course – they are incapable of empathy, and it’s difficult for them to muster even a little sympathy for others – it’s all about their own grievances, and how others should be grateful for their assholery.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Along with Mitt’s spawn.
debbie
@germy:
Boy, a chip off the old block for sure. //
Jager
My WWII Glider pilot dad never told “war stories” he did tell stories about some of the funny things that happened. Dad was awarded the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for Operation Varsity. His wound wasn’t a big deal, a piece of German Anti-Aircraft shrapnel in his left thigh. A week or so after Varsity, Dad and a bunch of his fellow pilots went to Paris from their base in France and proceeded to get shit-faced drunk, dad said, “I think we ate at a nice place in a big hotel” as they stumbled around the city, they went into a bistro, his co-pilot, walked into the glass door and broke his nose. One of the pilots made Johnson a paper Purple Heart and pinned it to his uniform. Dad was one of those farm boys who would lay in the hay and dream about flying. He was teaching flying and going to school on the GI Bill after the war, he flew a Piper Cub out to the farm, gave his parents each a ride, Grandma loved it and Gramps said, “Don’t go too fast.” I sure miss the old man.
Omnes Omnibus
People on FB and elsewhere have been wishing people a Happy Veterans Day. I am not sure how appropriate that greeting is. Is it just me or do others have a problem with it too?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s better than Happy Memorial Day.
ETA: I don’t have too much of a problem with using Happy in conjunction with Veterans Day, being that it’s original purpose was to celebrate the end of WWI. Also it’s a day to appreciate the living.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: True dat
Spanky
@Omnes Omnibus: While it sounds wrong to me too, at least we celebrate the survivors, and the Armistice. “Happy Memorial Day” will never sound right.
scav
@germy: Only a commie-socialist-demoncrat! could fail to recognize that their money, even their opportunity to have still more of their money, is utterly worth as much as the very lives of all those parents, children, siblings and spouses. Come on! This is American Greatness!
Barbara
@germy: Funny how I ride by Arlington Cemetery probably a few times a week and not once have I been prompted to think about it in terms of my own sacrifice of any kind. They can’t think about anything except in terms of themselves.
WereBear
I think it’s time to draw this decades-long experiment in Pampering the Rich to a close. I don’t see it working the way they claimed.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Reading that really makes me want to hurl. What a despicable little snot he is.
J R in WV
@Sloane Ranger:
I had not heard of the Chindits, so I looked them up. Amazing history, fought behind the Japanese lines around Burma! V strong men, all of them. Astounding that they’re still with us and able to get up at all~!!~
Thanks for sharing them with us.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I do.
And I hope that your comment isn’t snark. I can’t tell any more after the last couple of days on twitter.
I read the article above about Cory. I’ve said here before, endlessly probably, that I’m at the LA VA hospital a lot. Going tomorrow in fact. I see a lot of men in wheelchairs and with artificial limbs. I sat once with a vet whose brother had just died in the hospital, both of them having been drafted and served in Vietnam. I sat a number of times with a young man who served in the middle east and has PTSD. I saw in my own time at the Long Beach Navy hospital many with PTSD, which wasn’t then called that. I’ve never seen war up close and personal but I have seen and do see the after effects up close and personal still, from current and up to 50+ yrs later. Thanking me for my service, while doing nothing to actively help those wounded, some massively is what I can’t stand about being thanked. People don’t need your thanks, they need what they deserve for what they’ve given. They need not to see people needlessly get in the same position they are in. Many are glad to have served, none are glad to be wounded and disabled.
The thanks for your service feels like it is the least they can do, even from people at the VA, it sounds like an excuse more than anything. Many vets complain about the VA bitterly, because there are limits to what can be done and limits to what can be paid for. We pay billions and billions for the military and send people to die and be wounded for their country, the least the country could do is to actually thank them by fixing them better. We seem to have money to kill people, but not to save them. And people at the VA do amazing work. I like my healthcare, realistically it is as good or better than I’ve ever seen. It’s not perfect, nothing done by humans is. But it’s limited by money and medicine.
J R in WV
@germy:
What a self-centered dork!
Crosses in Arlington (seized estate of the traitor R E Lee) reminds him of his loss of money. So typical of all the Trumps!! They make LBJ and Nixon look like good men, which is quite a lift.
Ruckus
@WereBear:
This
Even if we taxed them several times higher than we do, the rich would still have more than enough to pamper their own asses.
@Barbara:
@SiubhanDuinne:
I can’t say the trumps are the worst humans but damn if they aren’t way up in the running. Snotty self absorbed assholes, every single one of them.
Barbara
@J R in WV: More people should dwell on the history of Arlington Cemetery. Montgomery Meigs began burying the Union dead there after his own son died in the war, because he, like many other generals, was so angry that R.E. Lee betrayed his country in a way that all but guaranteed many more men on both sides would die. Although not without controversy, the Lee family received payment for the “taking” of Arlington House (as it was called) and its surrounding grounds. It was Mrs. Lee’s family home, not her husband’s. Their son sued for the payment after the death of his father.
Professor Bigfoot
I never say, “Thank you for your service.”
It seems like most of those who piously mewl those five words are also the same people who send those young people into harms way over bullshit– or worse, for a little profit.
I just say, “Damn good to have you home, son; and I hope you brought all your brothers back with you– and you have my sincere condolences for those who didn’t come back.”
WereBear
@Barbara: I agree and here’s a link about the history of Arlington.
The more truths I learn about Robert E. Lee, the more he’s another all-hat-and-no-cattle kind of figure.
Another Scott
Twitter:
Amen.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Seconded.
Leto
Why is unemployment rate so high among military spouses?
“CNN’s Brianna Keilar speaks with Kathy Roth-Douquet, the CEO and president of Blue Star Families, about why the employment rate among military spouses is so low.”
I have a few ideas, but I’m just a TSgt so wtf do I know?
Barbara
@Leto: Because employers know that there is a good chance they will be moving within the next 2-3 years?
Spanky
I’m retired now, but worked for a couple of decades at Guachi’s home office, so I knew and worked with a lot of non-comms in all branches. Most that I heard if the topic ever came up were not really comfortable being thanked for their service.
Just yesterday I was in the local hardware store and heard one of the guys there thank someone in uniform. “Thanks for your support” he shot back. I guess that’s about the best return I’ve heard so far. Brief and perfunctory.
laura
I’m thrilled to report – via raw story that Shitler was booed with such fury that it could be heard nine stories up in a nearby building. Hope our commander in chief* understands the increasing rage and fury he can expect any/every time he appears in public until he is out of office. And I hope that his supporters get a face full of loser-stank for their support of this loser.
I sure do miss my dad and the Marine Birthday Party he attended in all but his last year.
hitchhiker
Because mr hitchhiker has lived with a spinal cord injury for going on 19 years, I can say that I really, really appreciate this story and hope people take the time to read it. Living on after damage to the central nervous system is its own special hell, because it SUCKS, and because there is never certainty.
Will he get better? Probably not, but maybe.
What does his getting better depend on? Lots of things, but definitely his effort will be a factor.
At what point does he stop trying to recover? Answers vary! First they said six weeks. Then they said a year. Then they said 2 years, for sure. He was still recovering incremental bits after 5 years.
It just goes on and on. My only complaint about this story is the writer’s insertion in a couple of places that Cory must accept his limitations in order to pick up his life. I’m sure it seems obvious to him, but he just can’t know what that acceptance means, or what it costs. He’s oh so carefully making a value judgment he has no business making, and it didn’t help me to see that he seems to know that.
A straight reporting of the situation would have been better.
Ohio Mom
The unsung heros are Cory’s parents, and all the other family members of all the disabled veterans, endlessly providing physical and emotional care, and social and spiritual support, without any support, rest or compensation for themselves.
They certainly never signed up for for this grueling, demanding and mostly thankless work but it is impossible for them to shirk it. I imagine that as the years pass, much of the initial broader support network moves on, leaving the aging parents on their own.
The “system” makes a note that the veteran “has natural supports.” That translate roughly to, Not our problem.
Can you imagine the dollar value of all the natural supports?
guachi
@schrodingers_cat: Arabic. I was trained in MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) and know Iraqi dialect reasonably well. My wife is trained as a Chinese and Hebrew linguist.
r€nato
saw a guy today wearing a shirt boasting that the US was “back to back world war champions”.
Ugh. “Ugh” because war is the last thing that needs to be glorified. “Ugh” because, you know, the US had more than a little help from the Soviets who did most of the Nazi killing and suffered far more death and destruction at German hands than the US has ever known.
Pretty much the last shirt that ought to be worn today, a day that celebrates the end of a horrible war and not ‘victory’ in it.
Jay
opiejeanne
@r€nato: I know about Russia’s efforts and don’t give a shit about them in this context, that being that some asshat thinks wars are a contest. What annoys me about this asshat is that I’m guessing he hasn’t served in ANY war, let alone WWII, and he thinks it’s a fucking competition.
Jay
Went to the New Westminster Remembrance Day Memorial today. First time I’ve been to one in over a decade. We mostly held Remembrance with our neighbours, in the meadow, but we are down on the Coast for a while.
They had cleared out a two block perimeter, with loaded gravel trucks to block VBIEDs, had Police teams in overwatch positions. Big Police presence in the crowd.
On the other hand, that New Westminster is Unceeded Coast Salishan territory, and the sacrifice of our Indigenous Peoples, in the wars, despite the hurdles they faced, to enlist, to serve, and when they came home, were deeply acknowledged.
About 50,000 turned out, and it made me more that a little veclempt to see that most of those currently serving, are visible Minorities.
Avalune
@Barbara: I have been told I was not considered for a position because they wanted someone they could be sure would stay in the area. So that’s definitely a reason.
Other reasons include: spouses often have to start at the bottom of a totem pole and work their way up, certifications do not always transfer from location to location, daycare can be cost prohibitive, some locations have very little to offer in employment, and for myself I often had trouble because I was vastly overqualified. Also, who you know plays a role and when you move you don’t know anyone, so you are just a resume, probably filtered out because you put admin assistant and they are advertising for secretary. Military spouses often have big gaps in their employment due to these types of reasons, which is also problematic. Your work history is often all over the place too – which some employers consider good/well rounded but others consider too far removed from the position.
Patricia Kayden
Leto
@Barbara: For officer’s spouses, that’s certainly an issue. Enlisted tend to stay at a base longer, but for an employer looking to hire it’s still an issue to see someone who’s resume shows a different job every 4-6 years. There’s also issues of having other states recognize out of state credentials for certain professions. Teachers are a very good example of this.
The bigger issue is that most of our military bases are in the south and in rural areas, so double whammy of economically depressed areas. Southern states are the basically they last areas to divest themselves of the military because they’re still the largest employers in the area. My last stateside active duty base, Shaw AFB in SC, when we moved there the unemployment rate was 23%. This was 2008, but it hasn’t really gotten any better since. The jobs they offer there are shit, so most people’s possible option is to find work in Columbia, but that’s a 45 min drive.
Edit: everything @Avalune: said.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Ohio Mom: One of the great things about the UK is that if someone is designated a “carer” for another person they are paid for it by the government. It is cheaper than hiring a professional carer and means that the family member can at least be compensated for the time that they spend caring for their loved one.
Omnes Omnibus
@Avalune: I would also guess that employers don’t how to assess or recognize the unpaid work that spouses of senior enlisted troops and officers with command assignments do.
Jay
Jay
How your sausage gets made:
MoxieM
@Jager: I miss mine too–he’s been gone 30 years, but every day… Mine wanted to be a pilot, but having lost his hearing in one ear to scarlet fever complications (aka strep throat), that was not happening. (Yay for penicillin.) He was in the USAAF, stationed mostly at Chakulia AFB outside of (then) Calcutta, but I’ve got photos from Viet Nam to (then) Burma, to Australia and all sorts of places in the Pacific. He was in the 45th Bomber group under the infamous Curtis LeMay. He was mostly support for his crew (see: ear); also he had one year of college. He joined one flight over the Hump and they lost 3 of the 4 engines on their Superfortress. They more or less crash landed on a runway being built in rural China (I have a photo–astonishing). (1 in 4 of those planes did not make it due to the altitude.) Their pilot must have been one amazing flyer. He had piles of stories like that, and I recently found a photo of a jeep carrying the goat who was their mascot on the Galapagos. I think his Pacific war was quite a bit less traumatic than many, but I don’t really know. He was on Eniwetok while they got “the Bomb” ready, but since it was top secret, he didn’t know that until well afterwards. I do know that he came home determined to live a life of peaceful, educated understanding. He became a historian, studying Russian/Slavic studies, but mainly doing work to enable less-advantaged kids gain access to higher education. He was one of the good guys. I was so lucky to have him for my dad.
cckids
@Ohio Mom:
I hear you. For most of my adult life I cared for my oldest son, who needed total care for all his needs. I sporadically worked part time, but could never build a career or even hold a job; there was always a bad year that required multiple hospitalizations, and no employer could or would deal with it.
The impact on our financial life (won’t even get into the rest of it) was catastrophic, and even though our son passed four years ago, that impact continues. Now I’ve got a job (a job and a half, actually), but I will never, never have a career. Starting over when you’re 52 years old, grieving and exhausted from years of stress isn’t conducive to building a career.
And all that being said, it pales before the reality of parents coming into this life when their child is 25, or 30. My son’s issues were apparent from the time he was 4 months old, we grew into acceptance and dealing with it day by day. The devastation of having this happen to your adult, independent child has to be total. I seem to remember Harry Reid trying to get something into the stimulus bill (??) to pay the parents or spouses of military people who need care like this, but it apparently didn’t pass.
raven
@guachi: Welcome home.
raven
@Barbara: Do you know about the day we, in the VVAW including Gold Star Mothers, wanted to lay a wreath in Arlington and they locked us out?
Ohio Mom
@cckids: I remember that you had a very disabled adult child; then it seemed that you disappeared as a regular here, and I wondered what happened.
Now I know. Very late condolences on the loss of your son. I hope knowing that you did everything you could for him has been a comfort.
raven
I’m sitting with my arms crossed right in front of the mom in picture 0037
Soprano2
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s a day to celebrate those who served, so I think saying happy is appropriate. My Vietnam-vet hubby gets mad when people treat it like Memorial Day.
debbie
@raven:
Unbelievable that vets would be locked out of Arlington.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Not really.
RAVEN
@debbie: They were scared shitless. Nothing like that had ever happened. Anacostia Flats and the Bonus Army was well after WWI.
J R in WV
@debbie:
No, not really. Maybe if they were vet Generals or vet Admirals, but even then if they aren’t doing official DoD approved stuff, “Get out of here, ya bums!”
Raven Onthill
By the way, Eric Bogle has a new anti-fascist song. You can see the lyrics at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157101375948577, but so far a recording has not been posted.