who became a young man overnight.
Bret's MOS was Air Traffic Control. After graduating
from Air Traffic School Bret was stationed at Cherry
Point, in Havelock, NC. The friendships he had with
those Marines, were special. Bret was on a fast track
up the scale in the Marine Corps. On February 21,
2013, they promoted him to tower supervisor, which I
was told was rare, being he was only a LCPL. They
had that much confidence in him.
On February 23, 2013, at 10AM. I received the call all
parents dread. My son had been in an accident on his
military base, he was being flown to Greenville, NC,
and that I was to get our family there as soon as possible. They said Bret was unresponsive, with blunt force
trauma.
By the time I got to the hospital, it was 9PM, I was the
first to arrive with my sister. Two Marines, greeted
me downstairs and briefed me, and walked us up to
ICU where Bret was. The Marines, and my sister,
walked in with me, and I almost fainted. There was
my beautiful boy, laying there with this bolt sticking
out of the top of his head. I looked at him, and there
was nothing on him but a left black eye. He had no
cuts, scrapes, bruises, anything else on his body. I
walked over to his right side, and said Bret, don't worry, Mommy is here. His head jerked to the right toward my voice. The Marines couldn't believe it, because Bret had been unresponsive. It was the first and
the last time, he ever moved.
support. Everyone was in shock. Bret was so outgoing, full of life, happy go lucky, making people
laugh and making them feel loved. How could this be
happening? I walked out, walked into a little room and
started screaming, like I never knew I was capable of.
I have read about people doing that, but until you have
the worst thing that ever happened in your life happen,
you never could ever know the despair of losing your
child.
That night, over 100 Marines, came down from Cherry Point. The hospital personnel was wonderful, they
let the young men and women march in 2 by 2 to
Bret's room to say their goodbyes. It was overwhelming. It was shocking to these young people, and it was
heartbreaking.
The next morning at 9 am, the doctors took Bret off of
life support. Jesse was wiping the sweat off of Bret's
face, and I was holding his arm, saying over and over
again, “I love you, my beautiful boy.” Bret passed
away in 5 minutes. The doctors took him from us immediately, because Bret signed up to be an organ donor. Bret was swept out, we walked out into the hallway with all these people standing there, and I just
lost it. I couldn't stop screaming and crying until Jesse said, “Mom, Stop.” This was the moment that my
life changed forever.
We went back to Ohio to wait for Bret's body to be
flown up there. He was transferred to Camp Lejeune
where they dressed him in his Dress Blues and then
flew him up to Cleveland on March 6, 2013. We were
Hundreds of Marines from Cherry Point and Camp all standing there, including the Leathernecks and the
Lejeune, came to see Bret. The nursing staff was a Patriot Guards, as the plane flew in. I have never seen
little overwhelmed by all the people in the waiting
room and all the people coming to see and pray for
Bret. My family all came in from other states. Bret's
friends from Ohio and his girlfriend came down. Even
one boy, Peter Kepich, from New York City, drove all
night long to come see Bret. I am so blessed and
thankful that so many people cared about my boy. On
February 27, 2013, the Doctor told us that Bret's brain
had stopped functioning. That we had to make a decision about taking him off of life support. I lost it, I
couldn't make that decision, I wanted my boy to wake
up and tell me, “Stop Mom, you’re being annoying.” I
tried everything to annoy him, I sang, talked about
girls, other stuff, it didn't work. Bret's father, Terry
and his brother, Jesse, had to make the decision to
take him off life support. The Priest came in and gave
Bret his last rights. Afterwards, I went walking down
to the waiting room, with all my family and Bret's
friends looking at me, hoping to hear me say Bret was
going to get through this. But I couldn't say it. I told
them, that the next day Bret would be taken off of life
The Warrior Heart November 2014 - 28