JesusRules08
04-23-2005, 04:45 AM
I got some really horrible news yesterday when i went to my mom's house. I would really appreciate it if you could all please pray for both my family and the Colburn family!
When i got to my mom's house she informed me that that morning Michelle and her buddy Colburn had gone out on a mission to pick up supplies, like normal. However, on their way back they ran over an IED and it exploded. It was only michelle and Colburn in the vehicle. The IED exploded right under Colburn's chair and launched him over onto michelle which saved her from taking the brunt of the scrapnel. Colburn was killed upon explosion. Michelle was seriously wounded having severe scrapnel in her neck and quite a bit in her leg. She has lost a majority of her hearing which they say will be back within a month. They don't know if she will regain full use of her hearing or not. After the explosion Michelle had to spend about 4 minutes returning fire because she was being shot at. She did not know that Colburn was dead. After all firing had ceased she spent the time until the medical helicopter got there trying to stop the bleeding in Colburn's head. She said, "I am trained to try to save the injured, all I could think about was 'I've got to save Colbrun'" She said she didn't even know that he was dead until they loaded his body into the plane with her and she saw the extent of the damage he had taken. He lost both legs and the left half of his face. Had it not been for the fact that he was thrown over onto michelle durning the explosion she would have been killed. In fact, they do not fully understand how she made it out alive.
I am glad that michelle is alive however i am having trouble dealing with the death of Colburn. Michelle and him were like brother and sister. They did all their missions together. Our family took him in as another brother, my mother treated him like a son. We would send him food and other things that he needed. Michelle would look around his sleeping unit and see what he needed and then would send us a list and we would make sure that he got it. Whenever michelle would call he would want to talk to us and he had always said from the beginning that if anything happened he would make sure that michelle was okay. He did. He gave his life so that my sister could be spared. For this I am eternally grateful. He kept his promise to our family and I am glad but at the same time it hurts to know that in the end he had to die in order for my sister to live.
So if you could just keep our family and the family of Colburn in prayers as we all go through this difficult time. Michelle will not be coming home. They are putting her on two days inactive duty and two weeks after that of no driving. They should be holding funeral services for Colburn either today or tomorrow over in Iraq. Colburn will be flown back to the U.S to have a proper funeral and burial here. He was from Frankfort Indiana. My family is torn between going to the funeral here or not. We want to go to pay our respects to the young man who saved my sisters life but yet we are not sure how it would effect his family. Knowing that their family member is dead but michelle is still alive. So pray for us as we will have to make a very difficult decision. I really want to go just to pay my last respects to Colburn and let him know how I appreciate everything he did for my sister. He was with her through her depression when she first got to Iraq. He would call her everyday when she was home for two weeks. He watched out for her until the very end. He kept his promise to our family and in the end gave his life to keep that promise. Even though i did not meet him face to face I feel like I have known him my whole life. He was a wonderful man who will be greatly missed.
Just keep us all in prayer durning this difficult time. Thank you!
April M. Shah
~Philemon 6~
When i got to my mom's house she informed me that that morning Michelle and her buddy Colburn had gone out on a mission to pick up supplies, like normal. However, on their way back they ran over an IED and it exploded. It was only michelle and Colburn in the vehicle. The IED exploded right under Colburn's chair and launched him over onto michelle which saved her from taking the brunt of the scrapnel. Colburn was killed upon explosion. Michelle was seriously wounded having severe scrapnel in her neck and quite a bit in her leg. She has lost a majority of her hearing which they say will be back within a month. They don't know if she will regain full use of her hearing or not. After the explosion Michelle had to spend about 4 minutes returning fire because she was being shot at. She did not know that Colburn was dead. After all firing had ceased she spent the time until the medical helicopter got there trying to stop the bleeding in Colburn's head. She said, "I am trained to try to save the injured, all I could think about was 'I've got to save Colbrun'" She said she didn't even know that he was dead until they loaded his body into the plane with her and she saw the extent of the damage he had taken. He lost both legs and the left half of his face. Had it not been for the fact that he was thrown over onto michelle durning the explosion she would have been killed. In fact, they do not fully understand how she made it out alive.
I am glad that michelle is alive however i am having trouble dealing with the death of Colburn. Michelle and him were like brother and sister. They did all their missions together. Our family took him in as another brother, my mother treated him like a son. We would send him food and other things that he needed. Michelle would look around his sleeping unit and see what he needed and then would send us a list and we would make sure that he got it. Whenever michelle would call he would want to talk to us and he had always said from the beginning that if anything happened he would make sure that michelle was okay. He did. He gave his life so that my sister could be spared. For this I am eternally grateful. He kept his promise to our family and I am glad but at the same time it hurts to know that in the end he had to die in order for my sister to live.
So if you could just keep our family and the family of Colburn in prayers as we all go through this difficult time. Michelle will not be coming home. They are putting her on two days inactive duty and two weeks after that of no driving. They should be holding funeral services for Colburn either today or tomorrow over in Iraq. Colburn will be flown back to the U.S to have a proper funeral and burial here. He was from Frankfort Indiana. My family is torn between going to the funeral here or not. We want to go to pay our respects to the young man who saved my sisters life but yet we are not sure how it would effect his family. Knowing that their family member is dead but michelle is still alive. So pray for us as we will have to make a very difficult decision. I really want to go just to pay my last respects to Colburn and let him know how I appreciate everything he did for my sister. He was with her through her depression when she first got to Iraq. He would call her everyday when she was home for two weeks. He watched out for her until the very end. He kept his promise to our family and in the end gave his life to keep that promise. Even though i did not meet him face to face I feel like I have known him my whole life. He was a wonderful man who will be greatly missed.
Just keep us all in prayer durning this difficult time. Thank you!
April M. Shah
~Philemon 6~