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'Instincts kicked in' for veterans rushing to help their own as train slams into parade float
• MIDLAND, Texas (AP) -- With the thunderous crack of a freight train slamming into a parade float carrying his fellow war veterans, Sudip Bose went to work.
• A front-line physician in Iraq, Bose and other veterans instantly tended to the injured. They applied tourniquets and put pressure on wounds as their training and battlefield experience took over in the chaotic moments after the wreck at a railroad crossing in this West Texas city.
• "Instincts kicked in," Bose said Friday, a day after the train traveling at more than 60 mph barreled into a flatbed truck adorned with American flags and filled with wounded veterans and their spouses.
• Four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were killed -- including an Army sergeant who apparently sacrificed his life to save his wife, and 16 people were injured. Bose, who served in Fallujah and Baghdad, said the aftermath reminded him of a combat triage situation.
• Some of the veterans who managed to jump clear of the wreck rushed to help the injured. Tommy Shoemaker, a special operations soldier, resuscitated one person and applied a tourniquet to a bleeding woman.
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Michigan congressman, elected to fill an expiring term, has 6 weeks to make his mark
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Driving from Michigan in his Ford F150 pickup truck, David Curson arrived in Washington a week ago. He set up an office last Sunday, was sworn in as a congressman on Tuesday and by Friday had logged his first votes and given his first floor speech -- one that stretched a bit past the one minute he'd been allotted.
• The 64-year-old Democrat has no time to waste. In six weeks, he'll be gone.
• In Congress' packed lame-duck session, Curson is a curiosity: He is one of four members of the House sworn in this week to fill a partial term, but he's the only one who didn't win a full, two-year term to go with the temporary gig. In January, he'll drive his truck home, replaced by Republican Rep.-elect Kerry Bentivolio, whom Curson beat out for the partial term. Curson did not run for a full term, only opting to run in the special election after other Democrats took a pass.
• The seat was left vacant when Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Republican, quit Con (Continued on page 29)
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