One of the 7700

Authored by Michael Pate on October 15th, 2004 at 10:59 PM

There is a guy with a television commercial who is trying to get his message out.

The Pentagon will only refer to me as a number — one of the 7700 wounded in action. They don’t want you to know who I am or who the others coming back severely injured are. - Robert Acosta

I don’t know what how he knows what the Pentagon wants but it seems like Joe Galloway didn’t get the memo.

All I want to do is be able to run again. - Robert Acosta

Or Nina Berman.

Nobody really knows what the soldiers are going through. They see one soldier wounded and they’ll forget about it, like as soon as they change the channel. Robert Acosta

Or even his former unit.

Acosta was wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom in a grenade attack while serving with the 1st Armored Division. Soldiers from the 63rd Surgeon’s office accompanied Acosta, and the 63rd also supplied the color guard. - 63d RSC Internet Site

It seems like his story hasn’t been suppressed very well at all. That does lead me to wonder: How do the other 7699 feel?

When asked whom they would trust as commander in chief, people in military service and their families chose President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, by almost a 3-to-1 margin. Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard, was more trusted by 69 percent while 24 percent said they trusted Kerry more, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey released Friday. - Will Lester

What happened to Robert Acosta was a terrible thing and terrible things happen in wars. And he has every right to express his feelings. Just as he has been doing for over a year now.