The Patriot Post® · Going To Marrocco

Needless to say the situation at the beginning of last week was tense. Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, was in the United States to meet with our President, Barack Obama, and there was considerable worry that the verbal, pointed jabs the two world leaders have made towards one another might jilt some very important and extremely necessary conversations.

So on May 11th somebody had a flash of genius when they came up with the idea of “going to Marrocco” and – believe this – once that happened all the glory of what was just accomplished between the two nations at The White House fell beautifully into place.

No, it wasn’t Morocco, that north African country next to the Sahara, where they took the Afghan leader. Instead it was to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, where Mr. Karzai could be an eye-witness to America’s determination in the worldwide fight against terrorism. You see, once there, they went to the bedside of 22-year-old Brendan Marrocco, a very unlikely statesman.

You may have caught it. During a late afternoon interview that made the nightly news, the Afghan chief looked right into the huge cluster of cameras and said of his visit, “It was a very difficult moment for me,” Karzai said, standing right beside President Obama, “to meet with a young man - a very, very young man, who had lost two arms and legs. It was heart-rending.”

Now, up front, you need to know two things. The first is that Mr. Karzai didn’t become Afghanistan’s leader without being shrewd and tough and quite a fierce warrior. He isn’t a milquetoast guy, not at all. The other is that you need to put on your seat belt and draw it right tight before you meet the newest member of my personal hall of fame, Army Spc. Brendan Marrocco.

On what was April 12, 2009, somewhere about 130 miles north of Baghdad, Brendan and some more of “our boys” were coming back to base after a night patrol. It was Easter morning and the sun was just beginning to appear not too far from The Holy Land itself when the truck hit a trip wire. The resulting missile came right through Brendan’s door.

It ripped off both of his legs and both of his arms. It severed his carotid artery. It shattered his face, seared his neck, knocked out eight teeth, and ruptured his ear. But no bomb man has ever made could kill his spirit. No sir! And now you know that when the Afghan leader met him this week, it wasn’t the brutal injuries that he saw.

It’s my bet they actually had to coach our wounded warrior before Karzai approached. Usually Brendan’s first greeting to strangers is, “Hey, give me a hand, will ya’!” and then he usually laughs the loudest at the dark humor of the Walter Reed amputee ward.

No, this time with the Afghan president he had to be more somber. For instance, if a visitor asks Brendan, what would you like to do more than anything, he’ll quickly say, “I wish there was a way that I could stay in the infantry and keep fighting with my brothers. That’s not going to happen, but I really wish I could. I’d give everything to go back and do that.”

That is the spirit Karzai witnessed. That is the heart of a valiant warrior. And that same eternal spirit is what reduced Afghanistan’s tough president to rubble when he met with Spec. Marrocco.

When Brendan’s bomb exploded, the intense heat from the device itself immediately –- and unbelievably – cauterized his most severe wounds. His best friend, gunner Michael Anaya, was killed instantly. But in nothing short of a miracle, Brendan lived to become the first “quad” amputee of modern-day warfare.

There were other heroes involved. In just three days after the tragedy, our magnificent Army medical teams brought him back to life three different times. They also flew his shattered body first to Baghdad, then to Germany, then to Walter Reed, with several surgeries at every stop during those first 72 hours.

Brendan remembers the explosion, the blinding flash of light, but he didn’t actually wake up until he was in a Walter Reed intensive care unit. “I opened my eyes and my dad was there. There was a soda on the stand next to my bed and when I reached for it … I couldn’t do it. I looked at dad and he just shook his head,” Brendan remembered.

Then what? “Aw, I just shrugged and went back to sleep.”

Please, I’m begging you to see what President Karzai just saw. After visiting Brendan and hundreds like him at Walter Reed there wasn’t any way Karzai wouldn’t “buy in” to talks with Obama. Sure, he met with our president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week but – get this – instead of immediately flying back home he spent Friday with the 101st Airborne in Kentucky. Warriors are like that.

A changed man? All week long President Karzai has repeatedly thanked the American people for the sacrifices they have made in his country. Further, he steadfastly promises Afghanistan will remain a dependable partner with us in the global war on terrorism.

Brendan, on the other hand (he loves such puns), is still learning to walk on his prosthetics. It’s different for him because he has no arms to steady himself, no way to catch his balance. “I love walking. I’m just not at the point where I can wear (the prosthetics) all the time. I wish I was but I’ll get there, no doubt about it, I will.”

There is a lot more to the story but I’ve gone too long. Quickly, while at Walter Reed he met a pretty girl named Kate Marsto. They are now engaged. So how about our soldier, Kate? “He’s such an incredible person and people don’t need to feel sorry for him. He’s going to do some great things in his life. He’s ‘better than normal’ to me.”

Yes … yes …

Brendan’s indomitable grit also has captured the hearts in his native Staten Island and several weeks ago they got him back in the neighborhood long enough to present him with a house. That’s right, a house, retro-fitted for his special needs. When Brendan saw his future home, he quietly said, “They say I really deserve it, but there are so many people in my mind that deserve it more than I.”

Well, that’s about the only thing our young Mr. Marrocco might say that Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, a tough and shrewd and valiant warrior in his own right, is not going to believe.

As a matter of fact, all the people of two or three grateful nations ain’t buying it, either.