Thought ya'll might find this interesting.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/16656791.htm
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/16656791.htm
Last week, John "J.J." O'Shea stood onstage at Kings Mountain High School cradling a vintage M-1 Garand rifle, the type issued to GIs in World War II.
At a ceremony honoring a hundred or so N.C. Army National Guard troops, O'Shea was allowed his own presentation. He turned the gun over to the surprised wife of Bobby Tedder, who's now recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from wounds sustained in Iraq.
It was the 74th such rifle O'Shea has given to wounded veterans as part of his M-1 for Vets project.
A few criticized the venture as insensitive and reckless when the Huntersville man started his project in late 2005.
O'Shea acknowledges a functioning gun isn't for everyone. But he sees the M-1 as a tribute. The same weapon that defeated Adolf Hitler is a symbolic "passing of the torch from The Greatest Generation to the Next Greatest Generation," he says.
The 54-year-old Tedder of Cherryville is the oldest wounded service member to receive an M-1 from O'Shea. Tedder has yet to see his gun, built in 1944. "But it certainly sounds like a nice piece of equipment."
Tedder nearly lost his left leg to a roadside bomb last August. He has been to Walter Reed a couple of times for rehab for weeks on end. He doesn't know when his next release will be.
"I reckon it'll be fun to fire," he says of the M-1.
O'Shea's project started a couple of years ago, as he and a fellow gun collector talked about doing something for veterans wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq. He put word out through the Veterans of Foreign Wars. A name soon came back -- Chase Savage, 22, a gun-collecting Marine who lost his right arm to a roadside bomb in Hawsa, just south of Baghdad.
Armed with a donated M-1, O'Shea drove nearly 700 miles to Savage's apartment in Senatobia, Miss., in December 2005 and presented him the weapon.
"It made my day, to say the least," Savage says of O'Shea's initial phone call. "It was a big shock. Then he came all the way down here, stayed in my apartment. We went out to dinner and took pictures. To do this for wounded service members ..."
The one-time presentation has become a project. On some days last year, O'Shea got 40 e-mails from interested donors. A unit from the 10th Mountain Division near Mosul sent him about $1,500. Donations from troops in Afghanistan and Bosnia also have poured in.
His two sons are in the Marine Corps. They haven't been deployed. O'Shea's voice shakes. He hopes aloud that he never has to present them with one of his M-1s.
"We take these young men out to the shooting ranges, and, I'll tell ya, it has profoundly helped them," he says.
Adam Kisielewski, 23, lost an arm and a leg to a roadside bomb outside of Fallujah. Patched up and sent back stateside, he was firing at a shooting simulator at Walter Reed when O'Shea called.
"He asked if I wanted an M-1," says the former Marine. "Well, yeah, but I don't have the money. He said, `Don't worry. You already paid for it.' "
Rules of Engagement
To be eligible for the M-1 for Vets project, recipients must have served in Afghanistan or Iraq and have a desire to hunt, shoot skeet or targets. Self-nominations are not considered. Contact John O'Shea at [email protected]
