I "meet and greet" our Fisher House residents all the time, and sometimes they share their story of how they got wounded, but most times they do not.  Matt and his father Mike are residents of Fisher House, and Matt is one of those seriously wounded guys who always has a ready smile, and a good word to say.  That in and of itself is enough to endear him, since he's missing one leg nearly to his hip, and the other just below the knee, has his right hand pinned and encircled with a metal brace, and still he has a smile for everyone.  He was extraordinary before I understood he is a hero in our midst.

At Fisher House, no two days are alike, and you never know who will show up.  Today a liaison officer escorted a Lt. Colonel to visit the houses, but more importantly "his men".  This LTC had just returned from Iraq last night, and here he was to check on "my guys".  I volunteered to show them around the facilities.  As we entered the arcade, an open area between the two new Fisher Houses at BAMC, the Lt. Colonel spotted Matt at the same time Matt saw him.  Matt's face lit up, as did the LTC's.  They embraced, exchanged greetings, and it was then I learned about Matt's story, and how he saved many lives the day he was so critically injured. 

LTC caught Matt up with what's going on in Iraq, and went even further than this article with his glowing description of the progress in Iraq; (Sorry, but www.godaddy.com has "updated", which frequently screws things totally.  It's at www.realclearpolitics.com) 

"In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit. He and his men had built an Arab-style living room, where he met with the local Sunni sheiks — all formerly allies of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups — who were now competing to secure his friendship.

In Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, which has seen some of the worst sectarian combat, we walked a street slowly coming back to life with stores and shoppers. The Sunni residents were unhappy with the nearby police checkpoint, where Shiite officers reportedly abused them, but they seemed genuinely happy with the American soldiers and a mostly Kurdish Iraqi Army company patrolling the street. The local Sunni militia even had agreed to confine itself to its compound once the Americans and Iraqi units arrived.

We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq. All across the country, the dependability of Iraqi security forces over the long term remains a major question mark.

But for now, things look much better than before. American advisers told us that many of the corrupt and sectarian Iraqi commanders who once infested the force have been removed. The American high command assesses that more than three-quarters of the Iraqi Army battalion commanders in Baghdad are now reliable partners (at least for as long as American forces remain in Iraq).

In addition, far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.

In the past, few Iraqi units could do more than provide a few “jundis” (soldiers) to put a thin Iraqi face on largely American operations. Today, in only a few sectors did we find American commanders complaining that their Iraqi formations were useless — something that was the rule, not the exception, on a previous trip to Iraq in late 2005.

The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave. "

The LTC shared with me that he met with Matt shortly after he'd been rescued from his burning vehicle. he recalled that Matt told him "they couldn't kill me, Sir".  He was struck by Matt's grit.  Matt had been the driver of the vehicle carrying members of his crew.  They had been heading onto a bridge when the IED threat occurred.  Matt recognized the threat, and his actions prevented many of his fellow companymen from being blown up.  He told the LTC that he hadn't meant to cry out, because he didn't want his buddies to get hit trying to get him out, but he said, to paraphrase, "When I realized the vehicle was on fire, I thought I had better let them know I was in there." 

As we walked away to continue our tour of the facilities, I asked the LTC if Matt was going to receive an award besides the Purple Heart?  He told me I could count on it, and that "that young man saved many lives that day". 

Though Matt told us he was proud of his actions, he didn't take all the credit.  He said, "God was with me all the way."  That's a great way to end this post; Amen.