Dear Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg:
St. Louis says, “Hi.”
With tweets and Facebook posts and all manner of website shout-outs, St. Louisans have been sending well wishes to Sgt. Remsburg, the Army Ranger who was lauded for his determination and courage by President Barack Obama during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
Remsburg, a 2001 graduate of Ritenour High School, was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009 — on his 10th deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has undergone countless surgeries and continues to battle back from a severe head injury. He has lost the sight in one eye and is partly paralyzed.
Obama pointed to Remsburg’s resiliency.
“Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg never gives up, and he does not quit,’’ the president told the nation.
Seated between his father Craig Remsburg and First Lady Michelle Obama, the sergeant rose to his feet during a long and emphatic two-minute ovation.
Even without the national spotlight, Remsburg is always in the hearts of members of Harmony United Method Church on Walton Road in St. Louis County, said Jean Gilbert, office and programs coordinator.
Remsburg and his family attended the church when they lived in St. Louis in the 1990s. He joined the Army after his high school graduation.
Members of the church have remained in touch with the Remsburg family; his name has been on the church’s weekly prayer list since he was injured.
“We have been with him on this journey,’’ said Gilbert who led the church youth group that he belonged to when he was a teenager.
“Cory’s a fighter. He had a lot of support, but he had to have the will. He’s not going to give up,’’ she said.
The family now lives in Arizona, but Remsburg visits St. Louis frequently to support veterans events. When he’s in town he tries to make it to regular church services, Gilbert said.
She was the one who answered the phone when Remsburg’s father called to tell church members that his son had been injured in Afghanistan. Gilbert said that Remsburg's father and stepmom have devoted their lives to helping him recover.
“For me, he was just like one of my kids. One of my boys,” she said, her voice choking.
But she also has happier memories of Remsburg — “a typical kid” who was involved in youth activities. He helped out around the church when work needed to be done. He went paintballing with friends from the church. She also recalled seeing him among a group of kids who were using tables with wheels as skateboards.
“So they were skateboarding from one end of fellowship hall to the other,’’ she said.
On the alumni pages of its website, Ritenour High School, notes that Remsburg was a member of the jazz, symphonic and marching bands.
The school linked to a New York Times story that profiled Remsburg last August.
Obama said he met Remsburg on three occasions: The first was in France in 2009, when Remsburg was among the Army Rangers re-enacting a parachute drop to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II. Less than a year later, Obama met the severely injured Remsburg at a military hospital. Last summer the president visited with Remsburg in Phoenix.
