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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Copied and pasted below is “Rudy with a Bullet”
from Rick Reilly’s “Life of Reilly” column in Friday’s
(December 17, 2004) Sports Illustrated. It, most deservedly, gives us
reason to pause and reflect on the selflessness of those stout-hearted
individuals who place themselves in harm’s way. Pro patria.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>He's just a walk-on. Number 39 in your program, zero in your
heart. Means nothing to you. Just another sadly spotless jersey on
the sideline. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>So how is it that Josh Amstutz is the toughest, bravest and
most inspirational member of Texas A&M's football team? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Well, look at his right leg. There are two scars left by a
bullet that passed through it almost two years ago, a gift from an Iraqi
sniper. How he runs on it as well as he does is anybody's guess. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Look at his jaw. It was stern and square enough for the
Marine honor guard that flanked President Clinton during ceremonial events at
the White House and led George W. Bush down <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Pennsylvania Avenue</st1:address></st1:Street> on Inauguration Day. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Look at his eyes. They're practically Aggie
maroon-and-white. What other 23-year-old Purple Heart winner would volunteer as
scout-team meat five days a week just so he can stand on the sidelines on
Saturdays in the fall yelping, "Gig 'em Aggies"? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"I can't believe I'm on the team," says Amstutz,
an A&M sophomore with freshman eligibility. "One practice it was
pretty hot and everybody was complaining. But I thought to myself, Hey, this
isn't bad. It beats being in 120 degrees in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> in a hazardous chemical
protective suit. And at least nobody's shooting at me." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>You want to bitch about the training table? There were days
when all he had to eat was one dried meal. "The scary part," he says,
"was we got so hungry, we started liking it." In fact, when he was
recuperating in the hospital after he got shot, a doctor saw him take a cookie
off his lunch tray and hide it under his pillow. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"What are you doing?" the doctor asked. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Saving food for later, sir," Amstutz admitted. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Son," said the doctor, "you don't have to do
that anymore." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>You want to rag about the road hotel? This is a guy who dug
a hole for his bed every night, "as deep as you could get it before you
fell asleep." And every time praying you weren't digging your own grave. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>You want to whine about the pressure of big-time college
football? Amstutz had to kill people. "All my teammates ask me that
question, but it's not something I want to talk about," he says. But he
carried a machine gun and an M-16 with a grenade launcher, and concedes that he
did kill other men. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Through it all, he never gave up his football dream. Gave
up? Hell, it's what kept him going. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>A tight end at Jasper (Ind.) High, catching passes from
eventual LSU standout Matt Mauck, he actually had two goals: become a Marine
and play college football. How could he have known that one wish would nearly
wipe out the other? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Amstutz reported to boot camp three days after he graduated
from Jasper in 1999, and he became such a dogged Marine -- he could stand for
hours and hours without so much as twitching -- that he was assigned to the
White House eight weeks out of camp. "The only bad thing about the White
House is the crazy squirrels there," he says. "They jump around in
the trees, and the branches slap you in the face and you can't do a thing about
it." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>While in D.C., he met Fox TV intern and Texas A&M alum
Jessica Fontenot and eventually married her. On a trip out West with Fontenot
in November 2001, Amstutz witnessed one of the great spectacles in college
football: a Texas A&M game in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">College
Station</st1:place></st1:City>. "I knew right then I wanted to play for
the Aggies," he says. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But 9/11 made him itch to fight. Before being shipped out to
the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>, Amstutz said goodbye to his
father-in-law, who was dying of cancer. "I won't be here when you get
back," Jessica's dad said. "So come home and take care of my little
girl." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>That suddenly looked doubtful on April 8, 2003, when
Amstutz's unit was checking out a tip that there was a weapons cache in a
school. "Bullets started whizzing by like in Saving Private Ryan," he
remembers. One went clean through his leg, just above the knee. He dragged
himself to a medic, who told him he was lucky: The bullet got only muscle. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Yet he wouldn't give up his dream of playing football. For a
year he put all his Marine determination into rehabbing that leg and added 40
pounds to his post-Iraq weight of 155. Having served his four years of active
duty, he enrolled in a junior college in the fall of '03, transferred to
A&M this year and in August was one of about 60 students to try out for a
half dozen walk-on spots. He made the team as a safety -- Rudy with a bullet. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"When I first met him, he told me, 'It's an honor to be
in the same locker room with you,'" says the Aggies' NFL-bound wide
receiver, Terrence Murphy. "But now that I know his story, I think the
same exact thing about him." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Amstutz hasn't been in a game yet, but if he could get in
for just one play, "I'd want to cover a kickoff. That's my dream. I
wouldn't want any big glory thing. Just one kickoff." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>On New Year's Day the Aggies play <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:place></st1:State> at the Cotton Bowl. Hey, coach
Dennis Franchione, can't you put him in? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>After all, he went in for you.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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