A Soldier's Miracle

(CBS)  Lt. Brian Brennan is a walking, talking miracle. There are no other words for it. One year ago today, he lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and now his mother is watching him learn to run all over again, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.

The 44 pounds of explosives which tore off his legs and killed three fellow soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division also left Brennan with a brain injury so traumatic there seemed little hope for recovery.

"He didn't wake up," said Joanne, his mother. "That's when the real terror struck us all. Oh my, he may never wake up. They said on scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst, he was a 1."

Then one day last June he had a visitor.

"It was a very, very grim situation, very tough one," said General David Petraeus.

Petraeus, who once commanded the 101st Airborne, tried the usual words of encouragement.

"Hang tough, big guy," he said. "Your troopers need you back out there."

But Petraeus' four stars carried no weight.

"There was absolutely no response whatsoever," Petraeus said.

"Did you think there was any hope?" Martin asked.

"Not really," Petraeus said.

"I see his beautiful blue eyes but he's staring straight right through me, and he doesn't know who I am and he doesn't know I'm there," Joanne said.

Petraeus turned to leave, then decided to give it one last try.

"I just decided to shout out 'Currihee.'"

That's right, "Currihee." It's a Cherokee Indian word that the was the motto for the famous "Brand of Brothers" regiment in the 101st.

"We counted 'One, two, three, Currihee,'" Petraeus said.

"That's when he kind of sat up in the bed as best as he could," said Brennan's dad Jim.

"Like saying, 'I'm in here, I'm in here,'" Joanne said.

"All of a sudden, the lieutenant, his stumps are banging up and down on the sheets," Petraeus said. "His head is moving around and very clearly responding to his unit's nickname."

"Everybody in the facility was clapping and crying," Joanne said. "The doctors who had been working on him and giving us all the bad news came running down the hall, 'We heard, we heard.'"

For three weeks, he had not responded to the voices of his family, but that Band of Brothers motto brought him back from the living dead.

"It's just so awesome to be part of that historic unit," Brennan said. "It's just always in the back of my head."

"And then it came to the front," Martin said.

"Yes it did," Brennan said.

"After that, he just every day got a little better, a little better, a little better," Jim said.

Just last week, Petraeus introduced Brennan as the unsung hero of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. That walk across the stage brought the house down, and overwhelmed his father.

"I know how tough he is," Jim said. "If there was anybody in this world who could do it, he was the one."

Less than a year after being comatose and unresponsive, he delivered an acceptance speech to a crowd of 2,000.

And guess what happened next.

"One, two, three, Curihee," shouted the crowd.

Know what Currihee means?

It means "stand alone." How perfect is that?

[ibpilot]

Ignorance in america runs rampant, The story was about Brian. You selfish posters always have to make the story about yourselves. ME ME ME ME. I am glad he recovered. thank the doctors and God. hell with the rest of you!!!

Pilot

[paddyhayes]

"Been there and I've seen the miraculous, too."

You have? One guy doesn't take a bullet when the guy next to him does?

A miracle, I tell ya!

[paddyhayes]

If you squint real hard and sort of turn your head to the side while pressing your temples, you can almost see a miracle in an event where three people are killed and one will live with grievous injuries for the next 50 years.

Message to god: If you want my vote, how about miracles where people don't get blown to smithereens at all?

[jimrestucci]

It's Currahee! - not Currihee, and it means "Stands Alone" and it's the greeting of day for soldiers assigned to the 506th Infantry, at least it was when I was stationed in Korea.

[GeoGeoGeoGeoGeo]

13 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: 21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.

[GeoGeoGeoGeoGeo]

St. John 9:1-34 1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointeda the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. 10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. 12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

[GeoGeoGeoGeoGeo]

This reminds me of the Bible story where the people that Jesus called hypocrites tried to reason how a blind man from birth was now able to see. They got no satisfaction from anyone including his parents, when everyone told them that Jesus healed him. Finally, they asked the man himself, and his response was, "one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." Moral of the story: Don't be a hyprocrite unless you've talked to the man himself." They were unable to hear, because they were spiritually deaf, so don't expect them to hear what you are saying when they don't have ears to hear (something spiritual - ye must be born again).

[JohnArmy]

Snake-Upchuck,

We Believers know this is a wonderful and inspiring account of a true miracle. Interesting how you non-believers fight so hard to disprove what you believe doesn't exist, isn't there.

Upchuck, and all non-believers, and those of your ilk, hope you enjoyed your National Holiday, on 01 April 2009, AKA April Fool's Day. Curses do happen. Enjoy.

[czhnder]

I might have entertained a "miracle" if the kid hadn't been injured.

But you have to wonder what "mysterious ways" god had in mind when he "miraculously" saved the life of a man who will now have to suffer for every god-blessed moment of the rest of his natural life . . . to god's glory.

Amen.

(By the way: For those of you who think war is grand, try going to one.)
Posted by paddyhayes at 8:21 PM : May 7, 2009

Been there and I've seen the miraculous, too. Paddy, what have you been smokin'?

[Culture_Warrior_in_09]

BECOME AGNOSTIC LIVE AN HONEST LIFE FOR ONCE
Posted by pythoncharly

Your posts on here every day CLEARLY indicate that you are the FURTHEST from living in honesty.

Psalm 25:5
guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

John 5:24
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

-Jesus Christ, the way, the Truth, and the Life