Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Robert “Boots” Chouinard, who served during World War II.
Robert “Boots” Chouinard was born in 1923. He enlisted in the Army in 1943, and a year later he was sent to Europe. He touched down in Omaha Beach in France five days after D-Day, before proceeding to Germany.
Chouinard and his unit, the 128th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion, were sent to the Rhine River to secure the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, a mission later chronicled in the movie “The Bridge at Remagen.” While thousands of American soldiers were crossing, they were tasked to shoot down German aircraft that were attempting to destroy the bridge. After successfully completing this task, they traveled south of the Rhine River, where they made another crossing in Oppenheim, Germany.
While he was near Oppenheim, Chouinard heard an announcement over a loudspeaker about a church service; he was one of a crew of seven that attended the Easter service. As they were walking into the packed church, armed and in uniform, they saw Germans, also in attendance, turn in discomfort, saddened and overwhelmed with emotion. Chouinard was moved by the realization of them worshiping together while fighting a war. After the service ended, they quietly left and continued their journey.
Toward the end of the war, Chouinard and his fellow soldiers were in a field south of Munich, Germany. He noticed a farmhouse and decided to ask for some fresh eggs. Meeting an American woman who married a German, he spoke with her and then later left with the eggs. When Chouinard returned the next morning, he was met by a German soldier and officer who were waiting for him. He was informed by the German officer that he wished to speak to an American officer. The German officer wanted to surrender, and not long after, a large mass of soldiers left the woods with their hands up. By not firing when first seeing the German soldier, the lives of over a 100 Germans and Americans were saved.
Now, Chouinard lives in Salisbury, Massachusetts, and writes stories for the Newburyport News. He plans to return to Germany to retrace his steps.
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Writers: Alexandria Robinson, Alexandra Kaiser
Editors: Annabelle Colton, Alexander Reza, Theresa Lyon
Republican senators have been accused of “sentencing veterans to death” after they blocked the passage of a landmark bill that would finally give US service members sick and dying from toxic exposure to burn pits access to the healthcare that they need.
Democratic lawmakers, veterans and advocates including TV host Jon Stewart spoke out in a highly emotional press conference on Thursday morning as the bill that had been expected to become law by the end of the week was suddenly derailed by the Republican party.
“This is total bulls***,” shouted Senator Kristen Gillibrand. “They have just sentenced veterans to death.”
On Wednesday, the SFC Heath Robinson Honoring our PACT Act collapsed in the US Senate when dozens of Republicans who previously backed the bill unexpectedly changed their minds and decided to vote against it.
The bill received just 55 of the needed 60 votes to pass a cloture motion on Wednesday, as just eight Republicans voted to move it forward.
A staggering 25 of those who voted against it had voted to pass the same bill just one month earlier.
Back on 16 June, the Senate had overwhelmingly voted to pass the bill, with senators voting 84 to 14 in favour of expanding healthcare access to thousands of veterans who had served the US overseas.
But now, with the Senate scheduled to go on a month-long recess on 5 August, thousands of veterans in desperate need of healthcare and disability benefits have now been left high and dry for even longer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Independent on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he is “going to give our Republican friends another opportunity to vote on this Monday night”.
Much of the blame for sabotaging the bill’s passage was levelled at Senator Pat Toomey who – ahead of the vote – spoke out against the bill and said that he wanted to add an amendment on provisional spending.
Speaking at Thursday’s press conference, Rosie Torres – cofounder of BurnPits360 and the wife of veteran Le Roy Torres, who has a rare terminal condition caused by burn pits – told the senator that more veterans will die because of him.
“Senator Toomey, how many veterans are going to die because of you?” she asked.
“Please explain to us: what is an acceptable amount of deaths?”
Ms Torres branded the Republican senators who switched their votes “25 villains” as she said the veteran community “demands answers, we deserve justice”.
Democratic Senator of New York Kirsten Gillibrand calls the GOP action ‘bulls***’
(EPA)
Mr Stewart, who has been lobbying the government to pass the bill, slammed the “abject cruelty” of the GOP lawmakers who had voted no and warned them that delaying passing the PACT Act is costing lives.
He hit out at the senators who plan to go on recess next week when the veterans who are sick and dying don’t have time to wait.
“They’re not on Senate time. They’re on human time. They’re on cancer time,” he said.
“Don’t you have families? Don’t you have people who are deciding how to live their last moments?” he asked the lawmakers.
Mr Stewart singled out Senators Toomey, Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell as he pointed out the hypocrisy of the lawmakers who claim they support veterans but voted against the PACT Act.
He read out one particular tweet posted by Mr Scott on Wednesday where the Florida Republican showcased photos of him giving out care packages to service men and women – the very same day he voted against the bill.
“I was honored to join @the_uso today and make care packages for our brave military members in gratitude of their sacrifice and service to our nation,” read the tweet.
Mr Stewart mocked the tweet saying “there’s a beautiful picture”.
“Did you get the package? I think it has some M&Ms in it and some cookies,” he mocked.
He also impersonated Mr McConnell’s voice as he revealed that one month earlier he had told veterans “we’ll get it done”.
“Mitch McConnell yesterday flipped,” he said, referring to the senator’s sudden decision to then vote no to the bill.
Mr Toomey, meanwhile, “won’t sit down” with the veterans he is impacting while he claims that he has the backing of several veterans groups.
“Pat Toomey claims that he has veteran groups behind him,” he said.
Comedian Jon Stewart hugs Susan Zeier at the press conference on 28 July
(REUTERS)
“I call bulls*** – these are the veteran groups,” he said gesturing around at the multiple veterans and representative from veterans groups who had gathered at the press conference to condemn the bill’s stalling.
“They’re all here. They don’t stand behind you in fact you won’t let them stand in front of you,” he said, branding Mr Toomey a “f***ing coward”.
The TV host said that – after he has spent more than a decade lobbying the US government first for 9/11 responders and then for veterans – he is “used to the hyocrisy” and “lies”.
“The Senate is where accountability goes to die,” he said.
“They’re never losing their jobs. They’re never losing their healthcare.”
He added: “This is an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country and to the founders and to all that they confess to hold dear. If this is America first then this is America f***ed!”
When asked for his reaction to Mr Stewart’s comments, Mr Toomey replied: “That’s not worth responding to.”
His office directed The Independent to his tweet on Wednesday where he said he was trying to solve a “budget gimmick”.
“Tonight, the Senate voted to give us the chance to fix a completely unnecessary budget gimmick in the underlying text of the PACT Act. This gimmick allows $400B in spending completely unrelated to veterans care,” he said.
“We can easily fix this tonight, and there is no reason we cannot do so NOW. This simple fix would not reduce spending on veterans in the underlying bill by a single penny. It’s wrong to use a veterans bill to hide an unrelated slush fund.”
When asked for comment, Mr McConnell’s office referred The Independent to his comments on the Senate floor where he said that he supports the “substance of the bill” but that lawmakers first need to “fix the underlying accounting issue”.
In March, the bill was renamed after the late Sgt Heath Robinson who died in May 2020 from a rare cancer caused by breathing in toxic fumes from burn pits while serving in Iraq in the Ohio National Guard. He was 39.
His mother-in-law Susan Zeier choked back tears on Thursday as she branded the senators voting against it “reprehensible” while dresssed in her late son-in-law’s army jacket.
Just one month earlier she had symbolically taken off the jacket saying that she no longer needed to “carry” Heath “on her shoulders” after the Senate passed the bill.
The 16 June vote had been celebrated by veterans, their families and advocates who have spent years battling for the US government to take the issue of burn pits seriously – as the passage meant it seemed certain that the bill was weeks away from becoming law.
The bill was sent back to the House for a final vote where it passed with a 342-88 vote on 14 July.
Because of a minor technical fix the House made, the Senate was required to vote on it again before it could be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
But – between one month and the next – dozens of Republican senators decided that they no longer supported expanding healthcare and disability access to US servicemembers and decided to change their vote.
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester slammed the move on the Senate floor on Wednesday night.
Veterans and advocates have condemned the GOP lawmakers now stopping veterans getting healthcare
(Getty Images)
“This eleventh-hour act of cowardice will actively harm this country’s veterans and their families,” he said.
“Republicans chose today to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans across this country of the health care and benefits they so desperately need.
“And make no mistake, more veterans will suffer and die as a result.”
Under the legislation, 23 cancers, respiratory illnesses and other conditions will now be presumptively linked to a veterans’ exposure to burn pits while on deployment overseas.
This means service men and women who have returned home from serving their country and developed one of these conditions will be given automatic access to healthcare and disability benefits.
It will also fund federal research on the impact of burn pits on the nation’s troops.
An estimated 3.5 million servicemembers and veterans are estimated to have been exposed to burn pits and airborne toxins while serving the US overseas, according to the Veterans Affairs (VA).
During America’s post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, huge open-air pits were used to burn mountains of trash including food packaging, human waste and military equipment on US military bases.
Thousands of US service members returned home from deployment and developed health conditions including rare cancers, lung conditions, respiratory illnesses and toxic brain injuries caused by breathing in the toxic fumes from the pits.
But, until now, the burden of proof has always been on veterans to prove their condition is directly caused by this toxic exposure.
In September 2020, a senior VA official testified before Congress that almost 80 percent of disability claims mentioning burn pits were rejected between 2007 and 2020.
In the last six months, the president has made tackling the issue of burn pits a higher priority and repeatedly urged lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation to support veterans.
During his State of the Union address in March, said that he believes his son Beau Biden may have died as a result of toxic exposure to burn pits during his deployment to Iraq.
Veterans advocates scheduled a victory-lap press conference outside the Capitol for Thursday morning in anticipation of passing new toxic exposure benefits legislation.
But after 41 Senate Republicans blocked the measure on Wednesday night, the event turned into a obscenity-laced rage fest instead.
“America’s heroes who fought our wars are outside sweating their asses off, battling all kinds of ailments, while these motherfuckers sit in the air conditioning walled off from any of it,” comedian and activist Jon Stewart told the grumbling crowd. “They don’t have to hear it. They don’t have to see it. They don’t have to understand that these are human beings suffering.
“They haven’t met a war they won’t sign up for and haven’t met a veteran they won’t screw over.”
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Now, after supporters believed they were just a few procedural votes away from a monumental congressional victory, they’re left wondering whether their anger can restart legislative momentum on the stalled veterans bill and salvage something from years of lobbying efforts.
The measure — the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or PACT Act — could affect benefits for as many as one in five veterans living in the U.S. today. It has been touted for months as potentially the most significant veterans policy changes in years.
It dramatically expands benefits for illnesses believed to be linked to burn pit smoke in Iraq and Afghanistan, Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam and proximity to other harmful military contaminants in varied service eras. It also would force changes in how the Department of Veterans Affairs evaluates and awards benefits for those kinds of illnesses in the future.
The PACT Act was expected to pass out of Congress in late June, but a technical correction mandated another set of votes in the House and Senate for final approval. It advanced on a 342–88 vote in the House two weeks ago with significant Republican support and already had been supported in the Senate with a 84–14 vote in June.
But 27 Republicans changed their support during a procedural vote Wednesday evening, sidelining the bill for now and frustrating supporters who thought their work was all but done.
“It came out of nowhere,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York and a longtime supporter of the benefits expansion. “And it was total bullshit.”
Senate leaders can bring the measure up for another procedural vote in the next few days, but they’ll only do so if they’re confident they have satisfied Republican objections.
And they admit they still aren’t sure exactly what those objections are.
In June, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, led the Senate opposition to the measure over how the $300 billion in spending over the next decade would be classified. The bill categorizes the new money and some already established payouts as mandatory spending. Toomey wants the existing spending to remain unchanged, saying reclassifying it may allow appropriators to add more spending to non-defense accounts in the future.
However, only 13 other Republicans backed Toomey’s concerns during the vote on the measure. Several declined to answer questions on why they switched their votes now.
Democratic leaders say they think other political issues played a larger role in the rest of the GOP caucus’ change of heart.
“There are really only two explanations,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said on the Senate floor Thursday. “The first is that 30 Republicans just changed their mind. Three weeks ago they thought it was a good bill, and three weeks later they decided that it wasn’t a good idea.”
“The less charitable explanation is this: Republicans are mad that Democrats are on the verge of passing climate change legislation and have decided to take out their anger on vulnerable veterans.”
During Wednesday’s veterans vote, Senate Democratic leaders announced they had reached a long-sought budget reconciliation deal that includes new climate change provisions, health care protections and tax increases for upper income Americans.
The potential proposal has been decried by Republicans for months, some of whom vowed to block a host of unrelated legislation if the deal advanced.
Eight Republicans — including Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas — voted for moving ahead with the PACT Act. Senate Democrats need at least 10 to advance the legislation, and more if members of their caucus are absent with injuries or illnesses.
On Thursday, Moran said he is working to find a solution.
“I have no doubt that we’ll get there,” he said. “I am working with Republicans and Democrats to make certain that it happens sooner rather than later.”
But he also acknowledged that he was surprised by the new opposition to the bill, and uncertain about all of the reasons behind it.
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If the problem with the PACT Act relates to Toomey’s objections, lawmakers could amend the bill and send it back to the House for another vote. However, with the House and Senate poised to leave town for August break in the next week, final passage would likely not happen until September, if longer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday afternoon said the chamber would attempt another PACT Act vote on Aug. 1. That will include a debate on a potential amendment to address Toomey’s accounting concerns.
But if the objections are tied more to chamber politics than the provisions of the PACT Act, however, the path to moving the measure forward is murkier.
Veterans groups at Thursday’s rally said they shifted from planned congratulatory phone calls to senators for supporting the PACT Act to restarted lobbying efforts instead. Several advocates went directly from the rally to senators’ offices, pleading with them to find a quick solution to the latest obstacle.
“We’re here now with friends of ours that need help breathing because of their illnesses from deployments,” Tom Porter, executive vice president for government Affairs at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said at Thursday’s rally. “But there are also people that aren’t here with this anymore.
“Not everybody understands all these intricacies about party politics and cloture votes. We just want to know why veterans are getting screwed.”
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
First off, thank you for taking the time to read this! I am a 35 year old Vet who served with the 173rd from 2015-2018 and am now working toward the completion of my masters degree at a University in Belfast, Ireland. The aim of my dissertation is to take a look at the struggles faced by all Vets from wars past and present in order to create some sort of future program to help all service members transition smoothly and with more options. I am asking that you take a couple of minutes to fill out a questionnaire that I have created with approval from my University and only supply information to the questions asked. Nothing personal will be asked of you nor will identifying questions be asked, that and all information will be used my myself only with no other persons having access to responses. The questionnaire can be accessed by clicking the link below and again, I thank you for your time!
In the Indo-Pacific region, Chinese aggression demonstrates an effort by Beijing to deconstruct core elements of the international rules-based order and assert greater control over the waterways that connect it with its neighbors, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs said.
Last month, for instance, a Chinese fighter aircraft cut across the nose of an Australian aircraft which was conducting legal operations over the South China Sea. The Chinese aircraft released chaff that was sucked into the engine of the Australian aircraft, said Ely Ratner, who spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Chaff” consists of fragments of aluminum, or another material, released from an aircraft as a radar countermeasure.
That incident, Ratner said, came shortly after another series of incidents where Chinese aircraft unsafely intercepted Canadian aircraft who were also conducting legal activities on behalf of the U.N. Security Council over the East China Sea.
Another incident, he said, involved a Chinese naval vessel endangering another Australian aircraft by aiming a laser at it.
“These are not isolated incidents,” Ratner said. “Over the last five years, the number of unsafe PLA [People’s Liberation Army] intercepts, including U.S. allies and partners operating lawfully in international airspace in the South China Sea has increased dramatically with dozens of dangerous events in the first half of this year alone. In my view, this aggressive and irresponsible behavior represents one of the most significant threats to peace and stability in the region today, including in the South China Sea.”
Ratner said if the Chinese military continues that unsafe behavior, in short time, it might cause a major incident or accident in the region. Chinese actions, he said, are part of an effort by Beijing to systematically test the limits of U.S. and partner resolve and to advance a new status quo in the South China Sea that disregards existing commitments to a respect for sovereignty, peaceful resolution of disputes and adherence to international law.
“What this demands of us is that we demonstrate the will and capability to properly deter PRC aggression,” he said.
The Defense Department has a strategy, Ratner said, which is aimed at ensuring the U.S., its partners and allies can continue to enjoy a free and open Indo-Pacific region where both international law and national sovereignty are respected.
Building asymmetric advantages for U.S. partners
Building a combat-credible forward presence in the Indo-Pacific
Enabling the most capable of U.S. partners in the region
“Without question, bolstering our partners’ self-defense capabilities in the South China Sea, and across the region, is a task of foremost importance for the Defense Department,” Ratner said. “DOD is taking an increasingly proactive approach in looking at new options to support these efforts.”
Underlying that approach, he said, is an understanding that deterrence doesn’t mean matching competitors’ capabilities directly.
“We’ve seen reminders in Ukraine that smaller nations can outmaneuver larger aggressors through smart investments in self-defense technologies, anti-aircraft weapons and other anti-access/denial capabilities,” he said.
Information can also be as powerful a tool as hardware, he said. And to that end the Defense Department is providing better support to partner intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and rethinking how it manages and shares information.
“We’re doubling down on our efforts to build a common operating picture with our partners that will allow them to better detect and counter illicit activities in their territorial waters,” he said. “Our new Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness … which we launched at the Quad Leaders Summit in May, is just one way that we’re doing so.”
The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, he said, will allow the U.S. to share near-real-time satellite data with partners.
Building a more combat-credible forward presence in the Indo-Pacific, Ratner said, means a focus on day-to-day campaigning, and the harnessing of new capabilities, operational concepts, and combined warfighting development with allies to complicate competitor military preparations.
“We’re building a more dynamic presence in the region,” he said. “In practice, this means we’re operating forward and more flexibly, including through a regular tempo of rotational activities.”
As examples, he said, last fall, two U.S. carrier strike groups were joined by a Japanese helicopter destroyer and a U.K. carrier strike group to conduct multilateral, multicarrier operations in the Philippine Sea.
“When the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group rotated through the Indian Ocean and ultimately the South China Sea last spring, we conducted multidomain operations with the Indian navy and air force that integrated air, anti-submarine and command and control elements,” he said.
Across the Indo-Pacific, Ratner said, the U.S. military has been increasing the complexity, jointness, duration and scale of combined exercises with allies.
“As we continue to shore up our position in the region, we will not relent in our commitment to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows to ensure that all nations are able to exercise this right,” he said.
Another of the department’s effort to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region, Ratner said, is better enabling the U.S.’s more capable partners and allies in the region.
“The United States’ ability to pursue common security and economic goals with like-minded nations is the cornerstone of our success and at the root of our strategy,” he said. “For the U.S. military specifically, our defense relationships and our ability to bind them more tightly together into more deeply interoperable coalitions can make clear the costs of aggression.”
U.S. alliances with Australia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, for instance, remain at the center DOD’s approach here, he said.
During a recent trip to Thailand, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and his counterparts there discussed opportunities to expand bilateral training and exercises, including the establishment of a working group on reciprocal access, Ratner said.
The U.S. is also working with the Philippines to develop new bilateral defense guidelines to clarify respective roles, missions and capabilities within the framework of the U.S. and Philippines’ alliance, Ratner said. Already, he said, the U.S. and the Philippines participate together in more than 300 exercises and military to military activities annually.
“We do not seek confrontation or conflict,” Ratner said. “We say that publicly, we say that privately. Our primary interest is in upholding the order that has for decades sustained the region’s peace. And while we will always stand ready to prevail in conflict, it is the primary responsibility of the Department of Defense to prevent it and deterrence is the cornerstone of our strategy.”
The Casio G-Shock GW6900-1 is one of the easiest-wearing watches you can get, and it’s just about perfect for life in the military. Wearing one of these will give you a watch you can always count on and have fewer things to think about – especially in the field, where the last thing you need to deal with is a dead watch battery.
Reliability is the name of the game for this watch. It keeps life simple with atomic timekeeping that automatically calibrates via radio signal every day to ensure that you’re getting precise time from the world atomic clock. The rechargeable battery runs off solar charging and, once fully charged, lasts up to nine months without further exposure to light. Other standard features include a stopwatch, countdown timer, and alarm (with a snooze function because everyone needs their beauty rest). As you’d expect, the GW6900-1’s resin exterior is tough as nails and waterproof to 200 meters.
This is by no means a small watch, but it’s not oversized. The case width measures 50 millimeters and the lug-to-lug distance measures 53 millimeters. The prominent buttons are easy to access with gloves.
Frankly, this sledgehammer of a watch is worth every red cent at $130, so it’s a screaming deal at $76.50 after the 41 percent discount. I’m having a hard time thinking of a better watch for the money for life in the military.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Even as the United States reeled from the Japanese advance throughout the Pacific in 1942 and the military sought desperately to ramp up the American war machine, it was remarkable that James Cook Sr. was even allowed to enlist.
It took the existential threat of world war for the military to open new roles to African American men, and Cook was in the first wave of Black Marines. Cook started his military journey at Camp Montford Point, a segregated Marine training camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and went on to serve in the Pacific Theater.
Growing up, James “Jimmy” Cook Jr., who is now 75 and a Knoxville resident, knew nothing about his father’s storied place in history as one of the Montford Point Marines, who served in all-Black units and distinguished themselves in war.
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Now, Jimmy Cook will receive on his father’s behalf the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can award for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions.
The Montford Point Marines were awarded the honor in 2012 after President Barack Obama announced the group distinction in 2011, noting the members’ personal sacrifice during World War II. But Cook Sr. had passed away at 81 in 2005, and it was only recently that Jimmy Cook learned what his father was due.
“You know when I found this out, I knew he had done some amazing things, but that just topped it for me. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God,’” he said.
Jimmy Cook, himself a retired Army veteran who served in Vietnam, will travel to a ceremony set for Aug. 25 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, during the 57th annual Montford Point Marines Day. Other Montford Marines or their families will be presented the award as well.
It wasn’t until Jimmy Cook was in high school in the early ‘60s that he stumbled upon a trunk in the attic filled with military uniforms and awards. He asked his dad if he was in the Army.
“And he said, ‘No son, I was in the Marines.’ And that was the end of it,” Jimmy recalled.
Jimmy says his dad kept his thoughts and memories of his military service to himself. “The only thing he would say is that he was stationed in the Pacific.”
Then, in 2021, Jimmy was casually talking to a retired Marine who revealed to Jimmy about his father’s forgotten Congressional Gold Medal.
Jimmy began doing online research on Camp Montford Point and requested his father’s military records to verify he was one of the Montford Marines. Reduced staffing due to COVID-19 caused delays in securing the records, but Jimmy’s sister made her own discovery while cleaning out their mom’s garage.
“She gave me this big envelope with all of his records in it and I just about went to tears,” Jimmy recalled.
James Cook Sr. was kind and soft-spoken. But in hindsight, there were glimmers of his military background, Jimmy said, describing his father as a disciplinarian.
“I tell people, by the time I got to basic training in ‘65, I thought it was Girl Scouts compared to dealing with my daddy. But like I said, he was a very patient man,” Jimmy joked.
Living in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, Earline, and five kids, Cook Sr. worked as an electrician and owned a television and radio repair shop. He was using skills he had learned from the Marines, where he served as a radar operator.
But Jimmy has come to learn more of what his father carried with him after the Marine Corps.
“[The Montford Marines] caught hell because they were the first to integrate. And they stuck them in the back of Parris Island and made them build their own barracks. It was just God awful,” Jimmy said.
As Jimmy has learned more about his father’s experience, his respect for the man has grown even more.
“My chest sticks out a block away. I’m just so proud of him and to know what he endured and went through,” he said.
Jimmy wishes his dad was able to receive the medal himself, but he is honored to accept it on his behalf.
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