Brothers Get a Second Chance
At Commentary, Alana Goodman writes a moving Memorial Day post chronicling the sacrifices that many American soldiers who survive war continue to make long after leaving the battlefields. Goodman tells the story of two brothers, Army Specialists John and James Thorne, whom she met at a wounded warriors event in Las Vegas. After stepping on an IED during a foot patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, James ended up in an Army hospital in Germany. John visited his brother there. But given only a 35 percent chance of living, James, who lost his leg and was suffering from a mild traumatic brain injury, wasn’t expected to make it home. James did survive and was awarded a Purple Heart. “But his brother, John, was appalled by the medal,” writes Goodman. “’For me, he deserves so much more than a Purple Heart,’ he said. ‘I started looking at it, and I thought, man, this isn’t worth it.’”