Out Of The Past

Longtime Readers will remember that many years ago, I attended Boomershoot with the Son&Heir, and took the 2-day training course delivered by Gene Econ and two kids from the unit he was training, Adam Plumendore and Walter Gaya.  As a result of that meeting, we (I plus my Readers) kind of “adopted” Adam and Walt, and when they told me they needed some gear (scopes and rangefinders) for their upcoming deployment, we raised the money and bought them the gear.  (As I recall, it took about three days to raise the $25,000-odd, because as I’ve said before, I have the best Readers on the Internet,)

Anyway, the kids went off to Iraq.  Two months later we heard that Adam had been killed by an IED, and Walt had been badly wounded in a different engagement.

I told you all that so I could tell you this.  Walt and Adam’s CO at the time was Col. Erik Kurilla, a man of incredible bravery and outstanding leadership.  He himself was wounded in Iraq (shot three times in the legs when ambushed by some assholes in, I think Mosul).

It will therefore come as no surprise to anyone when I tell you that Colonel Erik Kurilla is now General (4-star) Erik Kurilla.  You can learn all about him here.  It makes for some interesting reading.  Just the other units he’s since commanded makes me quite awestruck, but I bet he left them better than how he found them.  He’s that kind of man.

I had a chance to chat with him once, some time after Adam was killed, and when by way of introduction I told him how I’d met Adam and Walt, and about the gear we’d contributed, his immediate response was “Oh, I know all about you, Kim, and your group, and how you helped us.”

He was not then, and I doubt very much whether he would ever be one of those remote, office-bound types who doesn’t take care of his men.  With men like him in the Army, there may still be some hope for our future.

I feel extraordinarily privileged to have known him, even as slight as that acquaintance may have been.