In Boston, 15 April 2013, & Before, a Gold Star Father Didn't Set Out to be Hero

As I first saw this mornings report the name seemed familiar. It may also seem familiar to many others but then again there have been so many from this past decade plus maybe not, sadly it was, very familiar.

And wasn't the first time Carlos has been in the National media and not in happy or good news stories. Carlos had a son killed in Iraq and another who committed suicide as Iraq wound down, apparently in memory of his brother.

Out of the many photo's coming out of the Boston Marathon terror bombings one had a man with a cowboy hat that many news outlets ran, we now know who was wearing that hat and carrying a bloody American flag after and the tragic back story of Carlos and his family.

The man in the hat at Boston Marathon finish line: Carlos Arredondo didn't set out to be hero

16 April 2013 - It’s an iconic image that captures a moment when one Boston Marathon bystander became much more.

With blood-soaked hands and wearing a cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo helps rush a young man in a wheelchair to safety after explosions turned Monday’s race into a disaster scene.

He appears to be pinching closed a severed artery protruding from the victim’s thigh, stanching the flow of blood from a torn and shattered leg.

"I kept talking to him. I kept saying, 'Stay with me, stay with me,'" Arredondo told the Portland, Maine, Press Herald.

Another frequently published photo shows him afterward, carrying an American flag soaked in blood.

Arredondo had been at the race to support a group running for fallen veterans, one of them his son, according to the Maine newspaper, which described him charging in to help the wounded after the explosions.

Carlos first made very public news as he found out about the death of his son while Serving the Country in Iraq:

Life dealt the Costa Rica native the cards that brought him national media attention long before Monday.

In 2004, Arredondo’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, died in battle in Najaf, Iraq.

When Marines arrived in a van to deliver the news, on Arredondo’s 44th birthday, he grabbed a can of gasoline and a torch from his garage, climbed inside the van and doused it, then set fire to it, severely burning himself in the process, The Associated Press reported at the time.

By, with the just above and what followed, the end of this report it was very clear where I had heard about the grieving Gold Star Father. He had been marching with hundreds of thousands of us, millions around the world, as to what was being done in All Our Names and the extremely failed policies of our government leaders and representatives over the course of the past decade plus!

But some, patriots?, in this Country, still the name for is the United States as they color the states red and blue and viral hate rhetoric and threats ring out from our elected officials the media talking heads on down to the men and women who support all that, wouldn't let a grieving father grieve for his son and that sons fallen military brothers and sisters who served with him and he may have served with or not, but they all are any who serve second families.

Public grieving would gain him national attention, but it wouldn’t be easy.

In 2007, Arredondo was publicly beaten during an anti-war demonstration in Washington, according to WarIsACrime.org, which carries photos of the incident and an account from Arredondo’s wife.

And in December 2011, just before Christmas, Carlos’ other son, Brian, 24, took his own life as U.S. troops were withdrawing from the war that left his brother dead, according to numerous media reports.

And this is the account of what happened to Carlos in Washington:

The People Who Assaulted a Gold Star Father on September 15th

18 September 2007 - Here are photos of members of "Gathering of Eagles" who assaulted gold star father Carlos Arredondo in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2007, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.

Account of what happened from Arredondo's wife Mélida Arredondo: read more>>>

Carlos carries on in memory and as his son did, serving those in this country, and like in the military those injured and maimed, his brothers and sisters of the country and the one world we all share! As we all should be sacrificing for those who served with his son and survived both Iraq and the long ago abandoned main missions of Afghanistan!

"If military action is worth our troops' blood, it should be worth our treasure, too; not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

UpDate:

Finish line ‘hero’ recalls ‘horrifying scene’ at marathon Boston Marathon blast witness Carlos Arrendondo describes rushing into the aftermath to aid victims. WJAR’s Brian Crandall reports.