 Pictured
here is Mike McNaughton. He stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan
Christmas 2002. President Bush came to visit the wounded in the
hospital. He told Mike that when he could run a mile, that they
would go on a run together. True to his word, he called Mike
every month or so to see how he was doing. Well, last week they
went on the run, 1 mile with the president. Not something you'll
see in the news, but seeing the president taking the time to say
thank you to the wounded and to give hope to one of my best
friends was one of the greatest/best things I have seen in my
life. It almost sounds like a corny email chain letter, but God
bless him.
Snopes.com verifies
this as being true from the Internet, 2004:
On 9 January 2003,
31-year-old Staff Sergeant Mike McNaughton of Denham Springs,
Louisiana, a member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, was
serving with the 769th Engineer Battalion in Afghanistan,
scouting for land mines. Suddenly, according to Sgt. McNaughton,
"I closed my eyes for a second going up in the air and then
landing on the ground, and that's when I just -- I knew exactly
what happened." Sgt. McNaughton had stepped on an anti-personnel
mine, and in the resulting blast he lost his right leg, as well
as the middle and ring fingers of his right hand and a chunk of
his left leg. Sgt. McNaughton was evacuated to Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center in Germany for immediate treatment and
later flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,
D.C., for follow-on care.
In the months since
his wounding, Sgt. McNaughton has undergone at least 11 separate
operations as a result of his injuries and has been fitted with
a thin, robotic prosthetic shaft to replace his right leg. While
recuperating at Walter Reed, Sgt. McNaughton was honored to
receive a visit from President Bush. One of the subjects of
common interest they discussed was running, and the President
extended an invitation to Sgt. McNaughton to come running with
him once he was up and about.
The President's
invitation posed something of a dilemma for Sgt. McNaughton: "He
said give him a call and we'll go running. How are you supposed
to just call the president?" Fortunately, Sgt. McNaughton's
doctor at Walter Reed was also a doctor for the President, and
the two men were able to keep in touch through her.
In April 2004, Sgt.
McNaughton and his family made the trip to Washington, and --
true to his word -- the President went for a run with him.
According to Baton Rouge television station WAFB, Sgt.
McNaughton described his return visit with President Bush
thusly:
"It rained a little bit. I didn't care if it was storming or
lightning all around, I didn't care. It was nice to run with
him.
"He has a weight
room upstairs, in the White House. We worked out for about 45
minutes, we tried different equipment. He said I couldn't do it,
so I had to prove him wrong.
"This goes back to
my military training. I never once stopped something and said I
can't do it or quit. Just because I lost my leg, why should I
start now?"
Sergeant McNaughton
says the president was more interested with his new leg than
even his own children. McNaughton says the president couldn't
stop looking at it or asking questions about it. |
Guest
Speaker
ORDER
TODAY...
