Canzano: A battle beyond the Civil War

An airman needs help.

My favorite all-time Civil War football photograph was snapped in an actual war zone.

I realize the absurdity of that.

Brandon Hill grew up 15 miles outside of Eugene and became a Ducks season ticket holder. The first lieutenant in the Air Force happened to be stationed in Iraq in 2007 when he sent me an email in the middle of the night there.

In the picture, Hill and a fellow airman named Darren Jee stood beside a burned-out tank at the Baghdad International Airport. They draped the machinery with two school flags — one for the Ducks and another for the Beavers — and posed with their rifles.

Hill worked as an emergency room nurse at Oregon Health & Science University in his civilian life. Jee, a technical sergeant, was employed at Emanuel Hospital in Portland. While packing for deployment, both men did the same thing — they took the team flag that flew on their porch, folded it neatly, and placed it in their luggage.

In late November of that year, the military personnel living and working at Victory Base Complex in Iraq were asked to pick sides. Ducks? Or Beavers? Nobody there seemed dampened by the notion that UO star quarterback Dennis Dixon and OSU running back Yvensen Bernard were sidelined with injuries. The rivalry game was a welcome distraction on the base and the biggest sports event on their calendar.

Wrote Hill:

“We are always at risk here. Our job here is to provide medical care to the troops. So anything can come in to take care of. Darren has the tough job of finding our supplies. You can’t just find things here in Iraq. It can take a couple of months to get something here. So we have to barter and trade services with other locations around the Victory Base Complex to get what we need to function. I’m on call 24/7 functioning as the only nurse here. He puts in 14-hour days 6 of 7 days a week. I do have some great medics that allow me to get some sleep here though.

”We will be able to catch the game this weekend. We will be able to watch it live... We plan on having our own ‘Civil War’ party here.”

It was a terrific football game. It ended in double overtime. Oregon State won 38-31 when James Rodgers scored on a 25-yard rushing touchdown. But the journey was only beginning for Hill, who was 32 years old.

He spent 18 years in the Oregon Air National Guard. He became an Air Force medic and served two combat tours. After Iraq, he signed up to go to Afghanistan, where he became an ICU nurse. Later, he sought a four-year enlistment as an Air Force security officer.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Guam — Hill traveled, served his country, and helped save lives.

Now, my old email penpal is running out of time.

I received a note from his brother in the early hours of Thursday morning. Turns out Brandon Hill was born with only one kidney. He never mentioned it in any of our correspondence all those years ago. His brother Scott reported: “The kidney is showing signs of decline. He’s in great need of a donor soon.”

Brandon is married now. He has a 12-year-old son named Thomas. He worked for the last stretch of his civilian career helping fellow servicemen as a nurse at the VA hospitals in Portland and Spokane, Wash. His friends and family members have been screened as potential kidney donors, but nobody has been an acceptable match.

“We’re running very short on answers,” Scott told me.

Doctors believe Brandon’s kidney ailment is connected to his service. Given that he has only one kidney they don’t want to do invasive tests. They’re currently focused on trying to find him an acceptable match. They’ve enlisted an organization that helps veterans in need of transplants.

Brandon Hill’s status on the organization’s website: “waiting.”

The phone number for donors: (551) 233-1611.

That’s where the rest of us come in.

Spread the word. Share this column with friends. Post it to your social media platforms. And tell people about Brandon Hill’s saga. If you’re interested — and I am — in determining if you’re a match, take the steps and see what’s there.

In recent years, we’ve debated whether it’s appropriate to call the Oregon vs. Oregon State rivalry “the Civil War.” I’ve consulted with American Civil War scholars who insist the rivalry name should stay. But at no time have I ever mistaken an actual war on a real battlefield for the games played between the Ducks and Beavers.

Now, Brandon finds himself in a fight for his life.

I keep thinking about that burned-out tank in Iraq. The two school flags. The airmen posing. And the small psychological escape provided by that 2007 football game that helped faraway servicemen feel a little closer to home.

Brandon Hill helped so many others.

He needs some help himself now.

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