Corporal Jerrod Fields

I found this yesterday:

Cpl. Jerrod Fields has been knocked down before.

Cancer took his mother when he was 7. A thug's bullet took his father six years later. A coach took his basketball scholarship at Tennessee State.

And, in Iraq, a roadside bomb took his left leg.

But every time Fields is knocked down, he dusts himself off and gets back up again.

Now, after a year of recovery, the 23-year-old has managed to stay a soldier and get promoted. And he has plans to re-enlist for six more years.

"I told myself when I came home that I wasn't going to let some guy in Iraq determine my future," said Fields as he showed off his prosthetic leg.

It's emblazoned with the American Flag and the four blue stripes of Fort Stewart's 3rd Infantry Division.

Yesterday's Army was likely to pat Fields on the back, quietly hand him a medical discharge and replace him in the ranks.

Today's Army is giving him a chance.

While there's no official policy on retaining seriously wounded or disabled soldiers, President Bush encouraged the practice early in the war during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"This is a new age, and this is a new (military)," Bush said in 2003. "Today, if wounded service members want to remain in uniform and can do the job, the military tries to help them stay."

As of March 1, there were 392 war amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan across all military branches, according to Walter Reed figures. Fields is one of about 80 who have chosen to re-enlist, passing the same rigorous tests all service members undergo.

"Fields knows he needs to go way above and beyond, which is what he's done," said Capt. Ryan Booth, about Fields promotion to corporal. "The kid showed the fitness board, chain of command and the entire Army that you can't kick him out."

To stay in, he needed to pass the fitness test for his age: run two miles in under 16 minutes and do at least 40 push-ups and 50 sit-ups in two-minute stretches.

Fields beams when he recites his two-mile time: 14 minutes, 26 seconds.

You can read the whole story here. Yesterday Vice President Dick Cheney drove to Fort Benning and re-enlisted this young man. I do not this man's politics, religion or background beyond what is stated in the article. I DO know that this is the definition of a man, hero and patriot. Someone who can see the greater good, and sacrifice himself for others whether or not they agree or understand with what he is doing.

Thanks Cpl. Fields HOOAH!