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Tony Orlando has devoted his decades-long profession to our troops, however there was one encounter with a wounded veteran that has stayed with him over time.
The singer, identified for the ’70s hits “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” and “Knock Three Times,” has retired from dwell performing and touring. He gave his closing present at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino Arena on March 22.
The 80-year-old instructed Fox News Digital that certainly one of his proudest achievements is assembly our servicemen and ladies — together with wounded veteran Brendan Marrocco.
Singer Tony Orlando instructed Fox News Digital his life modified when he met wounded veteran Brendan Marrocco (inset). (Getty Images)
“I went to perform for our troops in Iraq [in 2009],” the star recalled to Fox News Digital. “When I left Iraq, I went to Germany to a hospital in which the wounded go from war. I wanted to meet the wounded soldiers.”
“At one point, the German doctor comes to me and he says, ‘Tony, do you have a strong stomach?’” Orlando shared. “I said, ‘I think so.’ He said, ‘Well, I want you to meet a young man who just came in two days ago. His name is Brendan Marrocco. And what you’re about to see… you better pray.’ I didn’t know what I was about to see.”
“I walked in and there’s this 19-year-old, a torso,” stated Orlando. “That’s all that’s there. No legs. No arms.”
Marrocco, a Staten Island, New York, native, enlisted within the navy in December 2007. On April 12, 2009, Marrocco was getting back from an evening mission when his armored car triggered a roadside bomb, the Gary Sinise Foundation shared. Marrocco misplaced each of his legs and arms. According to the muse, Marrocco was left with shrapnel wounds in his left eye, in addition to extreme burns on his neck and face. His left carotid artery was severed. His nostril, left eye socket and facial bones had been all damaged.
Marrocco misplaced each his legs and arms and suffered burns on his neck and face. He additionally broke his nostril, eye socket and different facial bones. (Getty Images)
“I said to the doctor, ‘Are you telling me this young man’s going to live?’” stated Orlando. “The doctor said, ‘We’re good here. We do good work. Yes, he’s going to live, but here’s why I called you in. You are from New York, aren’t you? Brendan’s family is also from New York. They’re coming here right now. I don’t speak good New York. You speak good New York. When they come in, would you let them know that their son’s going to survive?’”
“I said, ‘You want me to tell them that?’” Orlando shared. “‘Would you please?’”
According to Orlando, Marrocco’s mother and father quickly walked into the hospital. They rapidly acknowledged the singer. Orlando approached them.
“I said, ‘I’m here to visit the wounded,’” Orlando recalled. “I just saw your son.”
The matriarch’s eyes widened.
Orlando met Marrocco when he was within the hospital and was in a position to consolation his mother and father. (Getty Images)
“Mrs. Marrocco, I just want you to know, the doctors have asked me to tell you this,’” Orlando shared. “‘What you are about to see is horrific. But here’s the excellent news. Your son’s going to outlive this. He’s going to be OK.’”
Marrocco’s mom pushed Orlando apart, saying, “Move out of my way. I want to see my son.” The matriarch walked into the hospital room. There was lifeless silence.
“I was expecting a yelp, a scream, anything,” stated Orlando. “Nothing. At one point, I thought she fainted. But I heard no noise falling. There were no chairs, so I knew she would have hit the floor if she did faint.”
Marrocco’s mom stepped out. Her face was “white as a sheet.”
“She said, ‘Tony, I was prepared for my son to die, but I was never prepared for this,’” stated Orlando.
Orlando recalled Marrocco’s mom trying white as a ghost after seeing her son within the hospital. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
“I said, ‘Mrs. Marrocco… I recently did a concert. I met a guy named Dean Kamen. He’s an inventor… He invented a prosthetic [arm]. It can pick up a grape without dropping it. It can pick up a raisin without a program… Let me call him.’ So I did. And Dean says to me, ‘Tell Mrs. Marrocco I’ll meet her in Washington at the hospital, Walter Reed. I’ll let her know if Brendan is valid for it.’”
Months glided by, and Orlando heard no phrase. The singer assumed that Marrocco didn’t make it. Then he acquired a telephone name from American Airlines. They had been placing on a present for veterans. Kamen was anticipated to attend and wished Orlando to hitch him.
“I’m sitting in the audience — 4,000 military are there,” stated Orlando. “Dean comes out. He said, ‘Brendan Marrocco’s going to get his prosthetics.’ I just went, ‘Oh my God, God in heaven, thank you.’ Six months go by. I didn’t hear anything. Again, I said the same thought — it didn’t happen. He passed. Finally, I called Brendan’s father. He tells me, ‘He’s fine. He turned down the prosthetic.’”
Orlando was shocked. The patriarch instructed the star that Marrocco wished to strive cadaver arms as an alternative.
Orlando was shocked to study Marrocco had opted to obtain cadaver arms. (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post through Getty Images)
“He wanted to be a guinea pig for that operation,” Orlando defined. “He wanted to be that guy who had real flesh on his arms to pick up things, a real arm.”
Marrocco was decided. And he acquired the arms he yearned for.
“His arms were donated by a girl who died in a car accident — she was 15 years old,” stated Orlando. “Now, Brendan Marrocco can do chin-ups from his wheelchair and use both hands on a bar. He just sent me a video driving his motorboat with both of his arms. He has a big smile on his face. Now that’s a tough guy.”
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“It’s guys like him that have kept me going to do everything I can for our military, especially during the last 50 years,” he shared. “That story still blows my mind and fills my heart. And it’s a story about the power of music. During his healing, he was listening to all kinds of music… He’s an inspiration.”
Marrocco continues to energy practice following his surgical procedures and may now do chin-ups. (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post through Getty Images)
Marrocco is the primary U.S. soldier to outlive a quadruple amputation. He presently lives in a specifically tailored sensible residence in Staten Island.
“The first time I ever sang ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon,’ we were welcoming our POWs from Vietnam, Cambodia,” stated Orlando. “These were 500 of the bravest men I’ve ever met in my life, tortured to the bone. They were coming home to yellow ribbons on their doorsteps from their families… That ribbon became a symbol of homecoming… That little song continues to welcome people home, or give families hope that they will come home.”
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“A song has no borders,” Orlando mirrored. “A song has no boundaries. We’re all the same. All we want is to be happy, to be free. We all want to be welcomed home. We all want to feel hope… And that has kept me going to entertain our troops, to welcome them home. To give them hope.”
Orlando has an extended historical past with the armed forces, having carried out for veterans and returning POWS from Vietnam and Cambodia prior to now. (Harry Langdon/Getty Images)
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