My nephew has cancer

[Pat McCotter]

http://billy-cooter-mccotter.blogspot.com/

I just received word that my 25 y/o nephew has been diagnosed with stage IV stomach cancer (poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma.)

He just finished Army flight school in the UH-60 Blackhawk and was on leave in FL before assignment to HI as a medevac pilot.

He is my brother's youngest. My brother died in 1986 in an acetylene explosion.

[Kat Kanning]

I'm sorry to hear it! 

[cathleeninnh]

So sorry, Pat.

[Jacobus]

I'm sorry he and your family must endure this.

[Pat K]

Sorry Pat.

[PattyLee loves dogs]

                                                      :So sad, so young. I hope he can be comfortable.

[KBCraig]

That really sucks. I hope the Army will at least do right by him.

I started to say I'm surprised he made it through flight school physicals and they just now caught this, but the truth is I don't have much faith in them. One of my ROTC classmates put in for the Class A physical hoping for flight school, and they told him he had a bad back and kicked him out of the Army.

A few years later, he applied for a job that required a physical. He gave them his Army X-rays and told them about the back issue. They took their own films, then told him his x-rays were indeed of a bad back, but it wasn't his back.

He got booted while he was perfectly healthy, and meanwhile some schmuck with a crooked spine was flying helicopters.

My best wishes for your nephew and all his family.