Friday, October 8, 2021
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The chill big kid on the top step to the right is Tim, my cousin and my hero. He is posed in this photo with a bunch of younger cousins at a family gathering. I saw him usually once per year at our family fourth of July parties. I marveled as he grew up into a decorated soldier and a fierce and stalwart protector of his brothers in arms. He did not talk much about his experience, which is the mark of one who has seen too much, too fast, and too young. Tim loved his military life, his family and his Army buddies. His life was difficult, but he would say "embrace the suck". In other words, what Tim taught me is that the way to get an impossible job done, is to totally immerse yourself in it. Total commitment to a cause larger than yourself and sacrifice of self for others is the price paid on the battlefield and for ever more by the few, the wounded warriors who love us.
Thomas J. Flaherty
