Jeremy Guenther

Jeremy Guenther sat down with me for Heroes Live.

Paratrooper. US Army. He had just taken his son to Top Gun.

Born 1982. Kettering Hospital. Ohio. First twelve years on a farm with his dad. Corn. Watermelon. Green beans. Weeds by hand. Allowance was a quarter. Then Springfield with his mom until he enlisted.

Band nerd. Trumpet. Then trombone. Junior year he built garages at JVS. Construction job fell through. Recruiter said paratrooper. Extra 150 a month to jump out of planes. Only child. His mom was scared. He signed.

Fort Jackson. Drill sergeants never got the name right. Gunth. Guthrie. Gunter. He passed. Not honor grad. 31 Uniform. Commo. Airborne school. Lost his grandmother's glasses on the drop zone. First jump he landed like a sack of potatoes.

Bragg. 2001. Charlie Battery. Then HHB. 82nd. Air defense. He made E3. Got busted. Waxed a general's office. Got out January 2004. On his birthday.

Third shift at Walmart. Then Conagra. Slim Jims. He leads the stuffing room. His wife got him in. Stay-at-home mom. She takes care of a nephew with type 1. He got custody of his son. Her daughter has been his since she was two. Private Guenther signing out. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.