The Huntsville Times, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 A5

TRAGEDY AT AIRSHOW 2008

Nothing Son
flight squadron.
When his parents told him
they were taking him to the air
show Sunday – which was their
Continued from page A1 Continued from page A1 sixth wedding anniversary – to
see the Blue Angels in flight, he
as Panoply and the Black He didn’t just play well. He reached that rung of excite-
Arts Festival. He’s put up looked the part, too. ment achievable only by 5-year-
hundreds of tents during Before each game, the sandy- old boys en route to see their he-
haired, blue-eyed boy put on his roes.
his91⁄2 yearsinthebusiness uniform and stood on the tub in
but has never seen an ac- his parent’s bathroom so he And then, the unthinkable.
cident like this, he said. could get a full- “His dad tried
Within seconds, about length look at his to catch it,” said
400linearfeetoftents had uniformed self in “They (Josiah and Josiah’s “Mamaw.”
fallen. Just 40 feet down, the mirror. Butamancan’t
the wind loosened the
his mother) were catch something
He’d complete thatweighs5,000
stakes on another set of his conversion to attached at the hip. pounds, no mat-
tents but they held fast, he ballplayer with a
pack of Big Oh, she is going to tries, no matter
ter how hard he
said.
League Chew
bubblegum.He’d miss him so much. rather it was him
The air-conditioning how much he’d
units were sitting on the stick a big wad in
his mouth and They did everything chinery.
ground outside the tents, beneath the ma-
but the powerful wind then share the
managed to blow one unit rest with his together. And Jason, And that’s
on top of 5-year-old Josiah teammates.
He was terri-
(his dad) too.” when Josiah
Miller, killing him at the Miller became Photos courtesy of the family
fied of Chuck E Marta Newby part of a sad his- Josiah Miller visiting the Blue Angels display at the Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.
scene. Cheese and the Josiah’s grandmother tory, though his
Whitman said his Easter Bunny; he celebrity should
thoughts are prayers are loved trains and have been for
withMiller’s family,andde-
scribedFriday’s accidentas
oneofthe“mosttragicmo-
family and music
and watching planes land at
Huntsville International Air-
something else.

Like how he could sit rapt

ments” of his life.
“I keep going back and
thinking, ‘What could I
have done? What could I
have done?’ And there’s
nothing.”
port. through an entire Braves games
HelovedtheBlueAngels,too. on television or how he knew all
On a recent visit to Orange of the words to “Folsom Prison
Beach, his parents drove him to Blues” or how he could exist al-
Pensacola’s National Aviation most solely on McDonald’s
Museum so he could look at the Chicken McNuggets.
display of the Navy’s precision Anything but what it is.
Boy, 7, hurt at show in serious condition
From staff reports croburst damaged a tent Sunday at the show
at Huntsville International Airport.
A seven-year-old Madison boy injured at
He was among 12 people hospitalized with
Airshow 2008 was in serious condition Mon- injuries from the incident; the 11 other victims
day night at Huntsville Hospital. have been released, according to hospital
Matthew Pepper was injured when a mi- spokeswoman Sue Esslinger.

Capsizing
Continued from page A1
The weather forecast on the
day of the SciTanic called for
partly cloudy skies with a 30
percent chance of showers, a
highnear90andclearandcool-
er that evening with tempera-
tures in the lower 60s. The Sci-
Tanic accident is one of several
destructive incidents in the
Huntsville area attributed to a
microburst, a weather phe-
nomenon characterized by ex-
treme wind shifts and unpre-
dictability.
A 250-ton crane at the in-
termodal facility at Huntsville
International Airport was top-
Mick Roney, left, and Homer
Hickam helped recover bodies.
pled by a microburst in July
1993.Violentwindspushedthe
giant wheeled crane down a
track at 30 mph until it col-
lapsed when striking a bumper
stop.
TheroofofasouthHuntsville
apartmentcomplexwasripped
apart by a microburst in July
2003, displacing 38 residents.
LocalauthorHomerHickam
wellremembersthatJulydayin
1984 when the SciTanic was
blown over in the Tennessee
River near Hobbs Island.
Hickam was at Ditto getting
ready to go water-skiing when
the weather suddenly turned
wicked. He was flying earlier in
a Cessna and returned to the
Redstone Arsenal Airfield be-
cause of a sudden wall cloud.
Thethreateningweatherquick-
lydissipatedsohekepthisriver-
outing plans for the afternoon.
“When I got down to Ditto,
I was there only a few minutes
whentherewasthissuddentor-
rential downpour and high
winds,” Hickam said Monday.
Hickam reflected on the or-
dealalongwithCityRecreation
Services worker Mick Roney,
who helped Hickam that day
diving for victims.
Thestorm“wentawayjustas
quickly as it came in,” Hickam
said.“Someonestartedscream-
ing that there was a passenger
boatthathadoverturnedonthe
river.Myfriendswiththespeed-
boat–weracedoutofthereand
found the SciTanic upside
down.”
Roney was also at the mari-
na tending to his boat. “It start-
ed out nice and pleasant and it
justblewinrealquickbeforeyou
knew it,” he said. Roney took
shelterinhiscar,emergingmin-
utes later after the squall had
passed. That’s when he noticed
several boats racing out of the
marina ignoring the no-wake
zone. A marine police officer
asked him to hop in the patrol
boat after Roney told him he
had lifeguard credentials and
hadmedictrainingintheArmy.
Hickam, then a NASA em-
ployee and scuba diving in-
structor, and Roney, then a life-
guard and swim coach, were
among the first to arrive at the
capsized SciTanic.
Acquaintances through
swimming circles, they soon
found themselves tag-teaming
inthewaterinafrantichuntfor
survivors.
With Hickam in scuba gear
and Roney using goggles and
freediving,thepairswaminand
outofthedarkenedriverboatto
free bodies and look for mira-
cles.
Hickamkickedoutawindow
and severely cut his arm while
clearingoutthebrokenglassfor
access.
Together, they began pulling
out victims and swimming
them topside to rescue workers
on the overturned keel.
Roney said Hickam soon
warnedhimnottoentertheup-
side down boat.
“He said the floors weren’t
madetobeceilings,” Roneysaid.
Roney said the SciTanic ac-
cident and his having seen two
microburst-like events make
him keenly aware of the danger
of microbursts.
“They can come up with no
warning,”hesaid. “Youwonder,
sometimes. When I find myself
out on the river or in an open
area and a storm blows in, you
wonderifitwillberightonyou.”

The Associated Press

Capt. Ivan Castro runs alongside Spc. Robert Garner, left, while holding a tether with Sgt. Zane
Platt for guidance during morning physical training in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Blind
Continued from page A1
up to it.
“I am going to push the lim-
its,” the40-year-oldsaid.“Idon’t
want to go to Fort Bragg and
show up and sit in an office. I
want to work every day and
have a mission.”
Since the war began in Iraq,
morethan100troopshavebeen
blindedand247othershavelost
sight in one eye. Only two other
blindofficersserveintheactive-
dutyArmy:oneacaptainstudy-
ing to be an instructor at West
Point, the other an instructor at
the Combined Arms Center at
Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
An 18-year Army veteran,
Castro was a Ranger before
completingSpecialForcestrain-
ing,thegruelingyearlongcourse
many soldiers fail to finish. He
joined the Special Forces as a
weaponssergeant,earnedanof-
ficer’s commission and moved
on to the 82nd – hoping to re-
turn one day to the Special
Forces as a team leader.
Then life changed on a
rooftop outside Youssifiyah,
Iraq, in September 2006.
Castro had relieved other
paratroopers atop a house after
a night of fighting. He never
heard the incoming mortar
round. There was just a flash of
body, breaking his arm and
shoulder and shredding the
left side of his face. Two other
paratroopers died.
When Castro awoke six
weeks later at the National
NavalMedicalCenterinBethes-
da, Md., his right eye was gone.
Doctors were unable to save his
left.
The Blinded Veterans Asso-
ciation estimates 13 percent of
all combat hospital emergency
proceduresinIraqhaveinvolved
eye injuries and more than half
of the soldiers with traumatic
brain injuries also suffer some
visualimpairment.Thatmakes
them the third most common
injury – behind post traumatic
stress disorder and brain in-
juries – in Iraq.
“What he is doing is a strong
example that blind individuals
can lead exciting and mean-
ingful careers,” said Thomas
Zampieri, director of govern-
ment relations for the associa-
tion.
After 17 months in recovery,
Castro sought a permanent as-
signmentintheservice’s Special
OperationsCommand,landing
dutywiththe7thSpecialForces
Group. He focuses on mana-
gerial tasks while honing the
group’s Spanish training, a use-
ful language for a unit that de-
ploys regularly to train South
American troops.
Though not fully independ-
the Group area at Fort Bragg to
know just where he was going.
Hecarefullymeasuredthesteps
from car to office.
“Obviously, he cannot do
some things that a sighted per-
son can do. But Ivan will find a
way to get done whatever he
needs to get done,” Col. Sean
Mulholland said. “What I am
most impressed with, though,
is his determination to contin-
ue to serve his country after all
that he’s been through.”
Castro works out regularlyat
thegymandruns,hislegspow-
erfulandmuscular.Andthough
hehasaprostheticrighteyeand
his arms are scarred by shrap-
nel, his outsized personality
overshadows his war wounds:
Nobody escapes his booming
hellos, friendly banter and lim-
itless drive.
HerantheBostonmarathon
this year with Adm. Eric T.
Olson, commander of the U.S.
Special Operations Command.
Last year it was the Marine
Corps Marathon. He wants to
compete in the Ironman
triathlon in Hawaii and gradu-
ate from the Army’s officer ad-
vanced course, which teaches
captainshowtoleadtroopsand
plan operations.
“Iwanttobetreatedthesame
way as other officers,” Castro
said. “I don’t want them to take
pity over me or give me some-
thing I’ve not earned.”
0000009571-01

light, then darkness. ent, he spent a weekend before Castro is married and the fa-
Shrapnel tore through his starting his job walking around ther of a 14-year-old son.