RE: 108 Hours Many of you figured out who it was that we were transporting to Iraq. Mr. Robert Stokely provides a Thank You and AAR of a sort for you all to read. My deepest gratitude goes out to the amazing men and women of TigerSwan, Delta Airlines, the National Rifle Association and Soldiers' Angels (especially Patti Patton Bader, and Ricky John and the Louisiana angels). We had to choose a mission commander, someone with deep Iraq experience, a man who knew routes, convoy ops, force protection, and most importantly, could make tough decisions while literally under fire. That man who deserves the most thanks is my friend and brother, Toby Nunn, who we chose to be the Mission Commander. This mission was successful because of him, this is his victory. Last, I get too much credit for making the impossible happen. I really appreciate Robert's thanks, but really what makes things like this happen is all of you who donated and helped to spread the word. It was, quite simply, the right thing to do. So our goal was for Robert to find some peace. Did he? Read on and find out for yourself... It is now 0215 hours 11 Nov 11. I can't sleep. Not unusual this time of the month. The moon waxes full and draws me into being awake. There is enough moon light in the Georgia night to see without artificial light. A little more full than on the night of August 16, 2005 when SGT Mike Stokely was killed by a powerful IED blast on a lonely road near Yusufiyah Iraq. In the earliest moments of being notified of his death a few hours later, I felt immense guilt for not being there to protect him, and even though I could rationalize my feeble ability was not sufficient match for the skill he possessed much less the skill of the team of soldiers at his side that night. I felt even more guilt for not at least being there to hold him in his final moments, if only to offer the same comfort I offered him when I held him in my arms as a sick baby just 23 years before. How did I go from a car seat to a Flag Draped Casket in such a short period of time? In the week before he was killed, in what was my last goodbye and hearing him say "I love you dad", I had joked I would come see him. Yusufiyah was an awful place full of violence where he and his platoon were vastly outnumbered in the area they patrolled. They were there to disrupt the bomb making insurgents and foreign fighters who were staging bombs into Baghdad and to protect roadways that were vital routes in and out of the south of Baghdad. I remember he said I didn't want to come there, but I told him one day I would. And so it was in those first moments of learning of his death I vowed I would go, I would see where he served, and breathe the air he breathed, see what he saw. I had to do it, and could not rest in peace until I did. I had to give it my best try at the very least for I could not stand the thought of dying and not having tried. In the few months after his death I was at work on a plan to credential as a media person even though I have no journalistic training much less experience. I had a willing outlet and plans were developing when my sweet 13 year old daughter, Abbey and I were rammed by a car running a stop sign at full speed and we rolled and flipped. Abbey was seriously injured but survived, albeit with injuries that took 18 months to fully recover. A few days later ABC Anchor Bob Woodruff was hit by an IED and seriously wounded, suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury. My wife Retta, a quiet women who is gracious and suffers in silence, could bear the thought nor more and simply implored me not to go, saying "We can't take another tragedy...." So I put it aside, for the time being, but vowing one day I would go to where the Moon over Yusufiyah shines. Last December I felt the call so strongly I could wait no more. I reached out to Matt Burden at Blackfive and asked for his help in formulating an entry plan. Over the next ten months he worked with many others and Soldiers Angels stepped up to the plate and took financial ownership of the trip. More so, they put skin in the game in the name of a Guardian Angel named Toby Nunn who helped plan and coordinate but whose end game primary role was to accompany and look after me on the trip. Toby has the experience to do so being a multiple tour of duty Veteran of Iraq. Today, he is my dear friend and brother. It would take pages to detail all he has done as it would that of Matt Burden and Soldiers Angels including dear friend Ricky John who is Vice Chair of Soldiers Angels. Matt started the ball rolling fund raising wise in a post last spring titled it 108 Hours, which helped conceal my identity because of my on-going references to where Mike was killed, Moon over Yusufiyah. I have to tell you raising money for such a project is difficult when you can't really share a lot of info with others. But Matt, Soldiers Angels, a radio host name Chris Krok in Dallas TX and many many many others, especially Ricky John and his friends in Shreveport LA did the job. And ;people like Kevin Moss of Chick-fil-A hooked us up with a key contact at Delta named Patty Dejesus, who happens to be a Soldiers Angels Affiliate, and she in turn hooked us up with a Senior VP who...
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/n5S1XviHCro/108-hours-a-thank-you-and-mission-complete.html
Posted
Nov 10 2011, 10:19 PM
by
BLACKFIVE