Today Mark’s friend and teammate tells us what it was like to get the news of Mark’s death, how he got a risky flight out of his FOB and met up with Mark so he could escort back to the states as part of the Angel Flight.
September 29, 2017 makes seven years since Mark was killed in Afghanistan. This episode is solely about Bobby Bonello and Mark Forester. Even though much of what is discussed is written in my book, I wanted to have an oral history and capture Bobby’s feelings and some details that were left out of the book.
Seeing Bobby at Dover AFB for the Dignified Transfer was somewhat comforting. He knew Mark and knew us. Up until then, our notifications had been from those who knew Mark, but we didn’t really know.
Bobby was visibly shaken and had a sort of blank look in his face when we first saw him. Probably how we looked too.
The picture above is Bobby at Mark’s casket/transfer case in a C-17 in Kandahar, just before leaving for Dover AFB. Although barely being able to see Bobby’s face, he looks shaken, worn and upset. I still can’t tell you who took these pictures, but they were a friend of a family friend who happened to be there. Amazingly this person found out who it was and made the connection, got the pics to his friend, who then sent to me. It was only a matter a days after this happened.
And hope you enjoy clips of the song used. Credit to Radney Foster, Angel Flight.
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Copyright 2017 Thad Forester
http://www.patriottothecore.com
email questions to thad@patriottothecore.com
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