Army Ranger, Veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, uses $12,000 poker win to honor fallen brother-in-arms

December 25, 2004

by Sean Salai

When wounded Iraqi war veteran John Cosby won $12,000 during a hand of poker at the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino last week, his first impulse was to start drinking.

"I was thinking of calling in sick to work for about a week," Cosby, 25, told the Boca Raton News in an interview Friday. "It was party time."

But the former U.S. Army Ranger staff sergeant, discharged six weeks ago as the result of being hobbled by enemy fire during maneuvers near Baghdad, changed his mind after clocking in at the plumbing department of Lowes hardware store in Boca Raton the next day.

"I was just sitting there, listening to other employees talk about celebrating Christmas with their families, and I thought of my friend Mark who was killed in Iraq," Cosby said. "I thought of his newborn girl. She can't be more than two or three years old now."

Infantry Staff Sgt. Mark D. Vasquez, 35, was in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle struck by an improvised explosive in Fallujah on Nov. 8, 2003.

On Thursday, Cosby said, he mailed his casino winnings to Mark's mother Rebecca – in order to keep his gift secret from the rest of the family.

"Rebecca will give it to Mark's wife and two kids. It's really a Christmas gift for Mark's wife, but I don’t want her to know it's from me. That woman adored Mark and is far too proud to ever accept something like this."
The two men met at Fort Lewis in Washington a few years ago, becoming fast friends before Cosby went to Ranger training and a new unit. He said the older Vasquez had sponsored him for Ranger school.

"Mark was one of my inspirations in the service. You know how you always have that one person who drives you harder than anyone else? He was it. If it weren't for him, I'd be the reject of the service. He showed me how to make it fun."

Before he was shot in the knee this year, Cosby had served in nearly every theater of the War on Terror.
He went to Afghanistan on Sept. 12, 2001 and returned in 2002 for six weeks' leave. "We went over to Afghanistan the day after 9/11. Most people don't know that. I knew I was going as soon as I saw the planes hit those towers."

Cosby went from Afghanistan to the Middle East, scouting and gathering intelligence on Iraqi insurgents while prepping for invasion.

"It's always Rangers, Seals and Marines leading every operation," Cosby said. "If we get in trouble, special forces back us up. Their backup is Delta Force."

About eight months ago, Cosby's Army career ended when he was shot twice in the knee while running maneuvers and shattered both his feet running with the injury. The Army marked him for discharge (because, as he puts it, "I can no longer effectively jump out of a perfectly good aircraft") and sent him to Rammstein, Germany for recovery.

"There aren’t any good memories from Iraq, and you don't want to print the bad ones," Cosby said of his experiences.

Because his ranger duties had kept him beyond enemy lines, Cosby found out Vasquez was dead only after arriving in Germany. That's when his friend's widow forwarded him a website (FacesofValor.com) with "Mark D. Vasquez" listed as dead.

"More than anything, I was pissed off to see his name there," he said Friday, waving a customer toward nearby bathroom fixtures as he chatted on the phone. "Mark was one of the guys who shouldn't have died. He was the type of person who, when you were alone, would invite you to his house for dinner."

Cosby said he was born in Germany (East Baden) and his father and grandfather were both in the U.S. Air Force. He grew up in Northern California and Phoenix, signing up for the Army during high school.

He decided to move to South Florida this month after meeting some Floridians during his final leave period in Barcelona, Spain. On Dec. 4, he started work at Lowes and lives now with a roommate in Sunrise.

Cosby downplayed his gift to the Vasquez family, noting he is single and has had bigger gambling wins – including a Las Vegas jackpot of $180,000 – than this one.

"I'm going to celebrate Christmas sitting at home with my dogs," he said. "I may be a gimp, but I’m retired Army and I don’t need this money. I need Mark's family to have a happy New Year."

He also said he plans to continue visiting the Seminole Indian casino in Coconut Creek.

"The first thing I did when I got to Florida was party a lot and visit the casino. After working a 10-12 hour shift at Lowes, it's nice to go over there and be the rude customer for a change."