ADRIAN WALKER
A private's moment

By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist  |  July 3, 2006

Private First Class Junior Andino is, by his own reckoning, the kind of kid nothing much ever happens to.

He is a Marine reservist from Lynn who was injured in the spring while on duty. He fell 10 feet from a Humvee, seriously injuring his right shoulder.

At 18, Andino had enlisted last year after graduating from North Shore Technical High School. He had wanted to be a Marine, he says, since he was 5 years old.

A little more than a week ago, he found himself explaining all this to a former Navy officer, Senator John F. Kerry.

Andino and Kerry were seatmates on a flight from Washington to Boston, during which Kerry quickly struck up a conversation.

``We just talked about everything," Andino said yesterday. ``I showed him some pictures, and told him things are getting better [in Iraq]."

Not all of the conversation was so heavy, Andino said. ``I mentioned that I haven't been to a Red Sox game, ever. He called up somebody, and he asked me if I wanted to go to the Red Sox." Andino said he is a huge baseball fan who just never had the opportunity, or the money, to go to Fenway Park.

One week later -- senators have no trouble getting tickets, apparently -- Andino was joining Kerry on a trip to Fenway Park. They sat in the owners' box last Thursday and watched the Red Sox win a thriller over the New York Mets, highlighted by a great catch by Coco Crisp.

``It was really good," Andino said. ``It was a very fun time for my very first game. It really made my last two months."

Fun would hardly describe most of his experiences over the last two months. In addition to his injury, Andino has also been coping with the death of his mother six weeks ago. He is home for now, being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Andino said his shoulder injury might end his active-duty military career. He is facing surgery, followed by at least six months of physical therapy. By the time he's done with all that, he'll be deactivated. He hopes to regain full range of motion, though his prognosis is uncertain.

He will, however, be able to pursue his other reason for joining the service, which was to get a college education. He said he hopes to enroll at Salem State College, and to double-major in criminal justice and business.

I wondered what makes him think things are improving in Iraq.

``The Iraqi army is improving," he said. ``People don't understand what we're trying to do over there. But now I've been on the other side seeing what we're doing for the people, and we're doing a lot."

Andino wouldn't say what part of Iraq he served in -- ``an undisclosed location" -- or what he did there, but said that, health permitting, he'd gladly return. As it is, he was in Iraq for only a few months.

But back to Kerry. Andino's impression of him was sharply at odds from the view many people get from seeing him on television.

``I never thought I'd [talk to] someone I see on TV and look up to," he said. ``I never thought I'd be that lucky.

``He was a very nice, down-to-earth person. He was really cool. He was just like an ordinary person, very easy to talk to."

Nice story. It is good to hear about a politician showing their human side and being kind to someone who has not had the advantages that others have had. I wish Private Andino the very best; he's been through a lot just having served- but to lose his mother, too, is very rough on a young man. It is nice to hear he has plans for his future.

This has to be a heart-wrenching brutal time for him and I hope this meeting helps him when he gets back to civilian life. I should have phrased the title better - It looks like I meant this to be a story about John Kerry when in fact it was a story about two people.

This isn't the only story like this. When we went up to hold signs for him in the NH primary Kerry went out of his way - interrupting big wigs to get an elderly man with mental retardation (our roommate) the last "Firefighters for Kerry" tee shirt at Manchester Headquarters.