Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Brave, Blind And Well Armed


Capt. Ivan Castro, lost his eyesight from a combat injury in Iraq when a mortar round landed five feet away from him. He is the only blind officer in U.S. Special Forces.

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"I am going to push the limits," he said. "I don't want to ... show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission."

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"Once you're blind, you have to set new goals like getting at least 60 % of your pee into the toilet bowl," Castro said.

Castro has performed many missions since his blindness such as searching for WMD which he did not see and has the highest body count of his unit, of course its mostly Canadians and his own men but in Special Forces a kill is a kill.

He is assigned to the service's Special Operations Command, landing duty with the 7th Special Forces Group.

He focuses on managerial tasks while honing the group's Spanish training, a useful language for a unit that deploys regularly to train South American puppets er troops.

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Captain Castro has ran the Boston marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon. He wants to compete in the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii and graduate from the Army's officer advanced course which includes tough training in being a sniper.

"I want to be treated the same way as other officers," Castro said. "I don't want them to take pity over me or give me something I've not earned."

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1 comment:

The Mistress said...

Don't be ridiculous.

Sighted men can't get 60 % of their pee into the toilet bowl.