Friday, June 24, 2005

We Owe These Guys

*****__________
*****__________
*****__________


If I mention the following names, what do you suppose they have in common?

Sergeant Mike Meiner
Sergeant Brian Wilhelm
Sergeant Mike McNaughton
Airman 1st Class Scott Pizzifred
Airman 1st Class Scott Palomino
Marine Corporal James Eddie Wright
Army Specialist Danielle Green
Buck Sergeant Keith Wolverton
Marine Corporal Casey Owens
Navy Corpsman Jose “Doc” Ramos


Any thoughts? You might suspect these are people who all served in the War on Terror, in Iraq and in Afghanistan. They also are combat veterans who were disabled, often requiring amputations. They are mentioned here, because of the efforts of these people:

Dick Lynch, founder of IMPACT
Dan Goodale, West Coast Director of IMPACT
Larry Boyd, IMPACT General Chairman
Christian Okoye, Kansas City Chiefs and early IMPACT organizer
Jake Plummer, Denver Broncos
Jim McMahon, Chicago Bears
Mike Lee (pro bullrider)
Mike Shanahan, Denver Broncos
Reuben Droughns, Denver Broncos
Champ Bailey, Denver Broncos
John Lynch, Denver Broncos
Arnold Palmer, Pro Golf legend
Brian Kilmeade, Fox News
Ben Crenshaw, PGA star
The Buffalo Bills Football Club, NFL
Isiah Thomas, NBA star
The Cincinnati Bengals Football Club, NFL
Jeff Gordon, NASCAR
President George W. Bush
Darryl Grant, musician
Pat Bowlen, CEO Denver Broncos
Rudolph Giuliani
Junior Seau, Miami Dolphins
The New York Yankees Baseball Club, MLB
Carl Peterson, folksinger
The New York Knicks Basketball Club, NBA
George Strait, country singer
The Washington Redskins Football Club, NFL
Bob McNair, owner Houston Texans
Houston Force, Professional Softball Team
The Houston Texans Football Club,NFL
Jimmie Johnson, Hall of Fame Coach
The Miami Dolphins Football Club, NFL
David Carr, Houston Texans
Andre Johnson, Houston Texans
Joe Nemechek, pro Motocross driver
Greg Bifle, NASCAR
Zach Thomas, Miami Dolphins
Jason Taylor, Miami Dolphins
Scottie Pippen, NBA Hall of Famer
David Stern, NBA Commissioner
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor New York City
John Peyton, Mayor Jacksonville Florida

These people are all direct supporters and participants in Impact Player Partners, which honors and provides support to American military personnel who are severely injured or disabled. Impact Player Partners arranges for these brave heroes to meet with their favorite sports and entertainment personalities, and to honor these veterans before, during, or after sporting and entertainment events. Impact Player Partners also provides career, emotional, and financial support to these veterans, including transportation and lodging expenses for family members visiting their injured loved one, uncovered medical expenses or prosthetic device upgrades, and assistance to help with loss of income. They plan to build at least one home per years for an injured war on terror hero. You can help be a part of this. Simply go to Impact Player.org , read up on these guys and what they are doing, and help where you can. The easiest way is to buy some of their “Impact a hero” wristbands, like I just did.


“When I saw the stumps, I thought, ‘Damn, both of them? ‘ Then I looked at my leg and I was trying to figure how to put a tourniquet on it because I didn’t have any hands.” - Marine Corporal James “Eddie” Wright


The Summit Daily News summed it up with its headline:

“We owe this to these guys”.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see some celebrities take some time out to honour the troops.

I'd suggest someone from Impact get in touch with WWE as well. I'm sure there's a few disabled soldiers who'd like to meet the wrestlers and Vince McMahon (WWE promoter) is a staunch Republican and supporter of the war who's now had the promotion do two shows in Iraq, free for the troops to attend, donated quite a bit to veteran's charities and offered entry or viewing of his cards free to the military for over a decade now (ever since the first Gulf War).