Staying Fit
Back in November of 2009, I was at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan when I was invited to attend a send-off ceremony for what’s called an “Angel Flight,” the airplane trip that carries a fallen warrior home.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Pucino, 34, a Special Forces soldier, had been killed shortly before my arrival when his vehicle struck an IED during a patrol. I arrived at the flight line shortly before 5 a.m. for the ceremony. In the early morning darkness, I could see a giant C-17 with the back ramp down and several troops standing at attention in respect.
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Bright lights lit the belly of the plane, where a few soldiers stood watch over the flag-draped coffin of their fallen brother. I had a lump in my throat that wouldn’t recede as I stood motionless for a moment, staring at the casket. It was a still and intensely somber scene.
Maj. Gen. Mike Scaparrotti accompanied me onto the plane, and we both knelt and rested a hand on top of the coffin. I closed my eyes, bowed my head and said a silent prayer for this hero and for his devastated family who would meet him at Dover Air Force Base.
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Choking back tears, I thought of the hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of families I have met who have lost loved ones in military service and how hard it must have been for them when the Angel Flight arrived home.
I was determined to know more about Matthew Pucino. It turned out that he was as all-American as they come. He’d played baseball and football as a boy in Massachusetts and in high school, he quarterbacked his school’s football team.
He went to college and earned a degree in criminal justice. He intended to pursue a career in law enforcement, but like so many others — including me — his life’s direction was changed forever by 9/11. He was outraged that terrorists had committed such heinous attacks on America and was determined to bring justice for those who had been murdered on our soil.