Wounded US Army Ranger Struggles To Salute Commanding Officer As He Is Awarded Purple Heart Says Everything You Need to Know About Army Rangers

USAToday – An Army Ranger wounded in Afghanistan has the Internet buzzing with a photo that Web viewers have dubbed “the salute seen around the world.” Cpl. Josh Hargis, whose special operations unit is based at Fort Benning, Ga., was wounded Oct. 6 when an Afghan woman detonated a suicide bomb vest in Panjwai in Kandahar Province and triggered 13 other explosive devices. The blast killed four members of Hargis’ 3rd Army Ranger Battalion and wounded 12 other American soldiers. His numerous wounds called for him to hooked up to a breathing tube and other medical plumbing. His right hand was heavily bandaged. That hand, his saluting hand, rested under red, white and blue blankets when his commanding officer came into his room to present Hargis with a Purple Heart. “Josh had just come out of surgery. Everyone in the room, probably about 50 people, figured he was unconscious,” Taylor Hargis said Tuesday. The soldier’s wife of 2½ years spoke by phone from San Antonio, Texas, where her husband will be hospitalized. He is en route from an American military hospital in Germany. Yet, as the Purple Heart presentation began, Josh Hargis struggled to move his right hand and lift it into a saluting position. Military protocol calls for a soldier to salute when he receives the Purple Heart. “Grown men began to weep, and we were speechless at a gesture that speak volumes about Josh’s courage and character.” A doctor tried to restrain the wounded soldier’s right arm. It was, alas, a losing battle.”He had no idea how strong and driven my husband is,” said Taylor Hargis, who went to high school in Fort Myers, Fla. In pain from his wounds, still groggy from surgery, bandaged, hooked up to yards of tubes and without opening his blue-green eyes, Hargis delivered what his wife described as “the most beautiful salute any person in that room had ever seen.” The commanding officer told her the salute left everyone in the room in tears.

Stories like these should make politicians fucking ashamed of themselves. I mean you got real American Heros risking their lives on the front lines for this country everyday and then you got moron politicians playing a political game in their cozy little offices. Disgusting. Also this is why I lose my mind anytime somebody protests our troops or says negative shit about them. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a hippy, liberal, conservative, tea party or what. Our troops should be treated as the heroes they are 1 million percent of the time. Protest policy not the guys charged with carrying it out. God Bless Cpl. Josh Hargis. God Bless the Army Rangers. And thank you.