The topic I am about to talk about is a
sensitive one. Its about a man named Patrick McIlvain. He was in C
Troop (1-91 CAV of the 173rd Airborne Combat Team) and was
deployed to Afghanistan along with Steve! C Troop is an Infantry troop
and was put on COP Kherwar. They were the ones out there fighting the
good fight against the Taliban. Steve and Pat were very good friends! I
think everyone that you fight next to becomes a brother to you!
Well, Steve was eventually hurt by tearing a ligament in his ankle while on patrol so the end result of that was him being put in Havoc troop permanently which is Headquarters. Havoc Troop is on a FOB which is the safe posts where all they do is paperwork, communications and other things of that sort. I knew for the rest of deployment that he would come home safe!
Since he was now on FOB Altimur, he was watching cameras and doing a lot of other things. Well COP Kherwar was starting to make contact one day with the Taliban and all Steve could do was watch it on the cameras... then he saw Pat get shot in the head. Sure, there has been other people he knew that had been killed. They are all Combat Arms but this was different, this was Pat, his good friend. They had plans to go to Penn State together.
God gave Pat the gift of life. He did not die from that shot to the head. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of this incident. He still isn't the normal Pat and it isn't certain that he ever will be the same again. He is walking with some help and can now give a 'thumbs up' if you ask him to.. I think he can now even stand up on his own. Last night C troop all got together at the Irish Pub for the remembrance of Patrick McIlvain. Steve and I also went. Steve got to catch up with all of his brothers from C Troop. Adam Andrade and Josh Tweet were there and kept me company! They were two of the four boys that came over for Thanksgiving last November.
We are praying for you Pat and hope that he is able to make a full recovery! I really do hope for that! I never did get to meet him in person but I did talk to him on facebook when they were still deployed and he was always such a nice guy! He even started a fund with a few other friends of Steve's to save up money for me to fly over to Germany since the Army was taking their sweet time on getting me over here and almost didn't make it to deployment homecoming. He also started the fund because when my father passed away, the Army wouldn't let Steve come on emergency leave and I had noone for a little while until I moved to Spokane WA to be with my Mom. My Dad was who raised me and when he died, I really did lose my rock and foundation. It was a bad time in my life. He passed away Christmas Day, I was 19 years old.
Well, Steve was eventually hurt by tearing a ligament in his ankle while on patrol so the end result of that was him being put in Havoc troop permanently which is Headquarters. Havoc Troop is on a FOB which is the safe posts where all they do is paperwork, communications and other things of that sort. I knew for the rest of deployment that he would come home safe!
Since he was now on FOB Altimur, he was watching cameras and doing a lot of other things. Well COP Kherwar was starting to make contact one day with the Taliban and all Steve could do was watch it on the cameras... then he saw Pat get shot in the head. Sure, there has been other people he knew that had been killed. They are all Combat Arms but this was different, this was Pat, his good friend. They had plans to go to Penn State together.
God gave Pat the gift of life. He did not die from that shot to the head. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of this incident. He still isn't the normal Pat and it isn't certain that he ever will be the same again. He is walking with some help and can now give a 'thumbs up' if you ask him to.. I think he can now even stand up on his own. Last night C troop all got together at the Irish Pub for the remembrance of Patrick McIlvain. Steve and I also went. Steve got to catch up with all of his brothers from C Troop. Adam Andrade and Josh Tweet were there and kept me company! They were two of the four boys that came over for Thanksgiving last November.
We are praying for you Pat and hope that he is able to make a full recovery! I really do hope for that! I never did get to meet him in person but I did talk to him on facebook when they were still deployed and he was always such a nice guy! He even started a fund with a few other friends of Steve's to save up money for me to fly over to Germany since the Army was taking their sweet time on getting me over here and almost didn't make it to deployment homecoming. He also started the fund because when my father passed away, the Army wouldn't let Steve come on emergency leave and I had noone for a little while until I moved to Spokane WA to be with my Mom. My Dad was who raised me and when he died, I really did lose my rock and foundation. It was a bad time in my life. He passed away Christmas Day, I was 19 years old.
But the Army did pull through right at the last moment and got me to
Germany right in time for homecoming.- but its just the thought that he
would do that for me, a stranger! I know he is a great guy! I really
want him to get better.
 |
| Pat closest to the camera and Steve in the back! -While on Patrol in Afghanistan. |
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