A couple weeks ago, I sold my 2008 Honda CRF450R to a young man from Camp Pendleton. He and a couple of his friends came to my house and picked it up, and almost two weeks to the day later, which was last Wednesday – Veteran’s Day – I went out to Pala Raceway to ride a bit and hang out with this group of Marines.
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David Cho
Having grown up with my dad, who was a Marine who served three tours in Vietnam and may be paying the price for his service now (as the cancer he is fighting, according to doctors, is likely from exposure to Agent Orange), I’ve always been a fan of the Marines. They seem to be the proudest and probably ballsiest (is that a word?) group of men and women around, and all of them I know never quite leave the Marine Corps, no matter how long they’ve been a civilian.
So I was proud to make friends with these guys, who were all part of the 1st EOD Company. EOD stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Basically, these are the guys who are tasked with taking out the roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a special group of people who sign up voluntarily for the Marine Corps during a time of war, and even a more special group that sign up for the kind of duty David Cho did, both for the risk, and for the reason why they do it.
Well, one of the two guys who came along to my house that night was Sergeant David Cho. He’s a huge motocross fan, and he had recently bought a used bike from the Star Racing team and was really into it.
I’d like to give you some background on Dave: He joined the Marine Corps in 2004 because he wanted to help out his country. His friends and family said that he’s the kind of person who constantly seeks out a challenge and figured that, in his pursuit of helping his country and facing a challenge, the Marines fit the bill. His initial job in the Corps was as a Computer Technician, and after being exposed to IEDs in Iraq, instead of just hoping he would never encounter such a thing again, he worked his job until such a time that he could get a transfer into the EOD, where he has served ever since as an EOD Technician. To put it simply, he wanted to be one of the guys everyone else could rely upon to get rid of those bombs that are costing us so many servicemen and women.
Specifically, he is part of a three-man EOD team, and his job is to be the demolition specialist, which means he selects and builds the explosive charges that are required to render safe or dispose of those roadside bombs. It’s not limited just to that, though, as EOD Techs handle everything that is explosively hazardous, which literally includes everything from unexploded military munitions to nuclear devices. Dave has been to Iraq twice now, and coming up this spring, his team will be heading over to Afghanistan.
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Well, Dave was out there at Pala – on Veteran’s Day – having a good time until he took a trip over the bars. While we’ve all been there, the unfortunate part of this crash was that he was knocked out for quite some time, and when he came to he couldn’t feel his legs. He has a fractured T5 vertebrae.
The latest on Dave is that he is in ICU and they’re waiting for him to stabilize before they do the necessary surgery on his back. They’re cautiously hopeful that he may recover much or all of his function over time, as the cord itself is not severed, but right now Sgt. David Cho is facing the biggest challenge he has ever had to face.
While the Marines are covering his direct medical costs, there are a lot of ancillary costs that he and his family are going to incur related to such an injury, and for the time being the Marines in his unit have given the following instructions for donation to help out one of our veterans who was so badly injured on Veteran’s Day:
Please send checks to:
David Cho
4613 Mardi Gras St.
Oceanside, CA 92057
He’s a young man who certainly could use the charity right now, and who deserves it more than most of us.
Sometimes, when you’re busy complaining about the weather or the quality of last night’s dinner, it takes something like this to make you realize how fortunate you are to have those things to complain about. After all, if things weren’t so good for you, you certainly wouldn’t take the time to whine about minutia like that.
Here’s a letter from Dave Cho’s longtime buddy Victor.
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David Cho and his girlfriend, Cat.
Dave does not take crap from anyone. He is a genuine tough guy with a fun personality who is always looking for a challenge. He is determined to excel in everything he pursues, no matter how much pain he is in. If he is given the opportunity to walk again, I am willing to bet my life savings that he will ride again.
Together we have spent a countless number of days looking for a thrill. Together we played on the 10th Marines Football Team and were both starting players! The team went undefeated that year until the championship game, where we suffered our first and only loss. Dave went into and left every game amped, knowing that he gave everything he had on the field.
During the thanksgiving 96-hour holiday of 2006, Dave and I planned a snowboarding trip in Eastern North Carolina. There was supposed to be 10 of us that went on this trip, so I rented a cabin and we were supposed to split the cost. Everyone but Dave bailed at the last minute. He could always be counted on. We only got off the slopes that weekend for two reasons: 1) to sleep, 2) to eat. Even our cabin neighbors commented on how impressed they were with our drive. “You just keep on truckin’,” said one of the younger women of the group. We always pushed each other, at some point during any of these events, one of us always had the urge to quit, but we never said it and never showed it! Also we could never let one of us out perform the other.
The two of us worked on the same schedule. Since we were still fairly you and fresh to the Marine Corps. we took on second jobs at Jacksonville’s Bowling alley. We had to at the time to compensate for the sub-par pay from the Marine Corps and support our love of motorcycles. So, during the day we did our Marine Corps thing, in the afternoon was football practice, and at night was the bowling alley.
Soon after all the long days, we began to get worn out, but we didn’t let a little sleep deprivation get in the way of our goals. Eventually it paid off. We had our street bikes and our dirt bikes and rarely spent a weekend where we didn’t hit the track. As athletically gifted as he is, the guy is accident prone. I must have spent hours laughing at all of the little mishaps he had. Like the time he forgot to put his kickstand down on the R6 while he was sitting on it. He leaned it over and like a falling tree, without trying to brace himself he went down.
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Let’s not forget to mention the countless spills he took on the track. He could jump fairly well but he was never too good in the turns. We had a few debates on how he should gradually roll on the throttle in the turns and not just crack it wide open. Neither of us cared at the time, because he just wanted to go fast and I got a chuckle every time he took a spill. All his crashes or mishaps were harmless and entertaining. We always laughed at each other’s misfortunes. It made us realize the funny side of possibly bad things.
This time is different. This time, I’m not laughing. I answered the phone after seeing “Cat”, Dave’s Girlfriend, on the caller ID. Everything seemed normal until I heard, “Hey, Vic, sorry to bother you.” I knew at this instant there was something terribly wrong. Dave is one of my closest friends. Him and Cat could never bother me. That is when I learned what happened. It wasn’t until after six and a half hours of driving for it to become reality. The entire time I had hoped it was a twisted practical joke to get me down there so that we could go riding. My hopes were wrong and I had a hard time dealing with what was in front of me: Dave (Sgt. Cho) lying helpless in a hospital bed. I can’t tell you how gut-wrenching it is to see someone as tough as him with tubes down his throat and potentially paralyzed from the chest down. You can walk around your whole life thinking you are Superman until you see a moment like this. Knowing one of your best friends is in a life-altering state. Knowing that, as you look at his motionless, battered body, that could be you in that position.
