Page 3 - The Friday Flyer • May 1, 2015

MAY 1, 2015 THE FRIDAY FLYER A-3 Quilt of Valor for a soldier who served . . .
FROM PAGE A1
the 399th Combat Support Hospital, a reserve unit based in Massachusetts. As a Signal Corps Officer, Cory’s techni- cal skills involved planning, installing, integrating, operating and maintaining the Army’s voice, data and information systems, services and resources.
When the 399th Combat Support Hos- pital was deployed to operate the hospital facility at COB Speicher in September 2006, Cory was given a staff of 15 tech- nicians to run the information systems.
One of his tasks was to help fellow soldiers and the wounded communicate with their loved ones at home. That in itself was rewarding, but he also was
Sean brought his mobility service dog, Hammer, to the November 2014 Veterans Day ceremony.
pleased to share the many gifts that were sent to him. At that time, packages sent from the U.S. had to be addressed to real persons, not “Any Soldier” as in previ- ous wars. So everyone in Canyon Lake who wanted to show their support of U.S. soldiers would send packages to Sean to be disbursed as needed.
Articles about Sean’s time at COB Speicher appeared in the February 9 and 16, 2007 issues of The Friday Flyer (www.fridayflyer.com).
(Sean says one consequence of those articles was that someone who worked for Standard Textile, a company that specializes in bed sheets, blankets, sur- gical gowns and other textiles for the healthcare industry, read them and gave Sean’s name and address to the compa- ny, which started sending boxes of these much needed items to the hospital.)
It was while working on a satellite dish at COB Speicher that Sean fell off a roof and injured his spine; however, he remained in the military and had two more deployments. For his second and third deployments he worked in the Criminal Investigation Division, first at the Victory Base Complex in Bagdad and then in Kuwait.
By 2012-13, his spinal injury was taking its toll and he no longer could meet the physical requirements of the U.S. Army. Although he had hoped to do another five to 10 years in the military, he was told he had to get out.
tain a mobility dog from Thor’s Hope Foundation (thorshope.org). The foun- dation trains and provides therapeutic dogs for anyone with mobility issues, not just veterans. He obtained Hammer just a few weeks before attending the Veterans Day event in the Towne Center.
They easily transitioned into working with each other. Hammer is very smart and recognizes commands in both Eng- lish and German. Sean says the German commands carry more authority, mean- ing “do this now!” Hammer wears a cus- tom made harness that provides stability when Sean stands up, sits down, walks or falls. Hammer also is trained to open doors when Sean’s hands are full and to pick up items from the floor. He wears a sign that reminds people that he is work- ing and shouldn’t be petted.
Asked how it feels to be back in civilian
life, Sean says
he misses the
camarade- rie of the military, he misses his friends
and he misses “the
mission.” But he does feel at home in Canyon Lake and looks forward to Fi- esta Day, Taco Tuesday and other Can- yon Lake gatherings. He grew up here, his parents live here and his grandpar- ents built one of the first houses here.
He says one of the highlights of serving overseas was the chance to meet people from so many different cultures. Asked what he would like to say to his fellow residents, Sean says, “Travel out of the U.S. and talk to people. Other cultures think differently from us. Americans need to visit other countries to see what happens when you don’t have the free- dom and civil rights we have here – free- dom of speech and freedom of the press. You can’t understand what you have un- til you understand what you could lose.” Most of all he would like to say, “Thank
you for the s u p p o r t over the
years.”
“Looking back I can see they made the right decision,” he says. The injury resulted in peripheral neuropathy, a disorder of the mo- tor, sensory and autonomic nerves that connect the spinal cord to muscles, skin and internal organs. It usually affects the hands and feet, causing weakness, numbness, tingling and pain. Sean says he lives with constant pain and often loses his balance.
Last Fall, at about the same time he began working in real estate with his dad for Coldwell Banker Canyon Lake, he was able to ob-
When Sean Pisapia was in Iraq, he wrote, ““You do look for similarities to home even in a place like this. To that end, I noticed the other day there is a similarity to Canyon Lake: on the COB, you can drive around in ‘golf carts’ – okay, Gators and Polaris which are very similar to golf carts. You have to stay inside the gates and you cannot go over 30 mph or you’ll get a ticket. People love doing little modifications to them, just like home. The difference is here you ride around with a weapon and helmet and protective vest.”
THE FRIDAY FLYER
Volume 34 Number 18
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