God Bless you Jacob Romo and all the Others Who are Unsung Heroes

Most days are pretty routine here. I get Hunter up, fed and off to school. Then I check the Forge email and respond to all of them. The rest of the morning is devoted to household chores and running to the Amish leather shop. (I sure wish they had a phone. I make SO MANY trips there!) I feed Jarrod and Nate lunch and once I have it all put away, I head for the shop where I pack orders until my son-in-law arrives to work in the shop and brings the 6 and 3 year old grandchildren for me to watch for the evening. BUT some days are special. This was one of them. I received an email from a customer we had just shipped an order to. Jarrod and I don’t have TVs so we didn’t recognize the name, but you all may. Jacob Romo. His email was kind and gracious. He had been waiting on his order for a longer than usual time and I had apologized for that. He said he was used to waiting awhile for handforged items and was not concerned. He went on to say that he was retired USMC and “Part of what I do is lead men on certain tactical teams. Much of our work is anti-drug and anti-human trafficking. These axes are to be used as part of our standard equipment toward that end. Your equipment will go toward helping save lives, and we thank you for that. “

That prompted a Google search on Jarrod’s part and it turns out that Jacob Romo is a double leg amputee. In Feb 2011 he stepped on a landmine while doing operations in Afghanistan. But Jacob didn’t feel sorry for himself and he didn’t give up. And he didn’t lose his faith in God. In fact, it was those things that kept him going. His family , his wife and little boys never gave up on him either.

Jacob would NEVER have told me ANY of this. A hero doesn’t have to flaunt his courage. That’s part of what makes him a hero. But I wanted to tell you all so you would know that there are still people out there who give all they have. People like Chris Kyle (American Sniper) who believe it is their job to keep their country safe and who neither need nor expect nor WANT any recognition for that.

But we all need to hear these stories so we know that that men of courage, dignity, honor and loyalty still walk amongst us. That faith in God makes one stronger and gets us through the toughest of times. And that we will remain the great country we are because of these men.

God Bless you Jacob Romo and all the others who are unsung heroes.