The Dallas Morning News has released it’s finalist for 2009 Texan of the Year. The winner – or winners in this case – are the heroes of Fort Hood.
The award is given to “a Texan (or Texans) who has had uncommon impact; who exemplifies Texas traits of trailblazing, independence and staring down adversity; and who has affected or influenced lives.” In their story, the DMN tells the story of one of those heroes, SFC Karl Pasco.
He deployed to Iraq in 2004 with a 1st Cavalry Division scout platoon. Two months later, he was mangled by a roadside bomb that killed his driver. During eight days of unconsciousness, doctors couldn’t say whether Pasco would live or die.
But he recovered and returned with his unit to Iraq, staying alive and largely bomb-free for 14 months. With 45 days left on his tour, another roadside bomb riddled his armored Humvee with chunks of hot metal, killing his driver and an interpreter. One chunk hurtled upward through his right shoulder before destroying his jaw and shredding his face.Two Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars later, Pasco cracks jokes while working at Fort Hood between hospital trips for reconstructive surgery. “If it wouldn’t destroy my marriage,” he says, “I’d go back in a minute.”
Though he would deny it, Pasco is emblematic of Fort Hood’s endless list of heroes, one that goes far beyond the casualties and responders involved in the Nov. 5 shooting rampage.
Read the entire story about the 2009 Texans of the Year HERE.
