Chapter 13 - CALLAHAN’S EMAILWhen we returned home, Captain Callahan emailed.
Not from the airline.
Personal account.
Subject:
JV-31
I stared at it for five minutes.
Then opened.
Marcus, I verified the mission records. I was the aircraft commander recovered during Joint Venture 31 in October 2010. I believe you were the pararescueman who stayed with me until extraction after our crash. I do not want to impose on you or your daughter. If you are willing, I would like to meet.
I read it twice.
Then closed the laptop.
My right leg began aching.
Not from movement.
Memory.
I had not thought of that mission in years in any organized way.
Pieces existed.
Mountain.
Smoke.
Aviation fuel.
Someone screaming over a radio.
A pilot with blood over half his face.
A second blast.
Then hospital.
Then Germany.
Then surgery.
May you like
Then the long period of people telling me how lucky I was to keep my leg.
Lucky is a word healthy people use freely.
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