"Byron native Brandon Downey spent the past week hanging out with friends, visiting relatives, riding his new Honda 750cc motorcycle and being feted at a family barbecue.
It’s a far cry from the previous 12 months, which he spent in Afghanistan with the United States Army. Downey, who turns 23 in August, is a gunner with the 117th Headquarters Support Battery, a field artillery unit that is part of ‘‘The Big Red One,’’ the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.
The 117th HSB is stationed at Fort Sill, Okla.
Army Specialist Downey is home on a two-week leave following a year of active-duty deployment in the city of Gardez, Afghanistan.
This weekend Downey’s in New York City to catch a baseball game, New York Yankees versus the Oakland Athletics. He reports back to Fort Sill July 31, then gets another two-week leave starting Aug. 20.
Downey said his training is in artillery weapons such as the Paladin 155-millimeter cannon and the M777A1, a 155-millimeter light artillery howitzer nicknamed ‘‘the 777.’’
‘‘If something is four miles away, we can hit it with a round,’’ he said this week, while relaxing in his parents’ home on Ivison Road. The serviceman’s body bulged with muscles he developed training in the gym inside his unit’s forward operating base.
The family’s two dogs, Pomeranians named Izzy and Ashley, played underfoot.
Downey has a tattoo on his left arm of the Protection Psalm, 27:3: ‘‘Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.’’
On his right arm is a tattoo of the grim reaper wrapped in an American flag. Mr. Death holds a 240 Bravo machine gun..."
To read the rest of this story: http://thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_6a4972e6-b4de-11e0-83d9-001cc4c002e0.html
No comments:
Post a Comment