Pause in your daily ablutions today and pay your respects to a wonderful father, a Viet Nam Veteran and a true American patriot. Don came to me belatedly in April of this year via his loving wife Cheryl. It seems VA wasn’t too impressed with the fact that his monomelic amyotrophy (a recognized variant of ALS) wasn’t truly ALS. Can’t have that. My biggest regret is that they didn’t find me far sooner. As Mick says, you can’t always get what you want.

Don passed away last Tuesday at the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC down in Houston at 0819 Hrs. after a very long battle with prostate cancer, the ALS and a host of other nasties like rectal cancer that concluded with a colostomy bag. VA doesn’t believe it had anything to do with our old friend Agent O. Sadly, I won’t be able to fight that one for him but we are fighting like a rabid pit bull to get the ALS issue SC and make sure Cheryl gets her DIC. My old squadron logo of Win or Die™ is my assurance I won’t give up.

Don’s prostate cancer never went into remission. He was 100% for that from July 2015 so he missed the ten year test for the DIC by a miniscule eight months. All that’s left is a prayer for his death certificate to state the prostate, the DM II, the hypertension or a possible AO disease like IHD to be the culprit. Failing those, I’m going after a post-death IMO for the rectal cancer or the amyotrophy = herbicide as a contributing factor to his eventual demise.

I consider myself blessed beyond words to be allowed to advocate both for him- and now- his surviving spouse. He fought his diseases long and hard for years only to auger in shy of the finish line. Don was a proud Marine from ’61 to ’66 and got in on the early fights up in I Corps. and had been awarded a Purple Heart. He’s lucky he was issued a M 14 and not one of them toy Mattel© M 16s. Oddly, he was never awarded his Combat Action Ribbon to go with the PHM. I’ll be contacting his Congressman directly in hopes of rectifying that oversight. Better late than never.

Rest in Peace, Don. While I never got to meet you in person, rest assured I’ll move heaven and earth to ensure your wife receives her DIC. You can take that promise to Heaven with you. Were the shoe on the other foot, I’m sure you would do no less for my Cupcake.