ATHENS, Ohio — On the day his brother was shot 10 times in Afghanistan, Ohio University defensive end Corey Hasting went to football practice.
That’s actually about the fifth or sixth thing he did. Hasting knows the timeline better now, now that the mix of fear and sadness and sickness he initially felt are gone. After a series of the toughest phone calls and text messages he could ever imagine, he found himself alone in his room, alone with a million thoughts.
That’s when he knew he needed to go to what was Ohio University’s final spring practice of 2011.
“I couldn’t be with my family,” Hasting said. “But football, that’s where my other family was. I needed them.”
Scotty Hasting was an Army platoon leader in Afghanistan. On April 21, 2011, Scotty and another soldier entered a hut in a small village, metal detectors in hand. They were looking for Taliban soldiers they knew were in the area.
It was a setup.
Scotty Hasting took bullets in the shoulder, hip and leg. The bulletproof vest he was wearing prevented him from taking more and might have saved his life.
He was rescued, rushed to a local hospital, then life-flighted to a military hospital in Germany. Because his platoon had been in a “black period,” it had been longer than usual since Scotty had talked to his family. In the hours after the shooting, his family knew very little about his condition.
At about 11:30 a.m. ET that morning, Corey got a text from his mother asking to give her a call. He replied that he was in class and would call her later. She demanded that he leave class and call immediately.
“I just knew,” Corey said. “She was hysterical.”
A little more than three frantic hours passed before anyone was able to reach his father, and Corey said sharing the news with his father was “one of the hardest things I ever did.”
It was after that call that Corey felt very alone, sitting in his room thinking about all the games and all the wrestling matches and all the conversations he ever had with Scotty, who’s about two-and-a-half years his elder. It was all the wondering and mind-wandering that led Corey to get in his truck and go to practice.
“Football has always been my thing,” Corey said. “I knew if I just sat in my room that night I’d drive myself crazy.”
Four days after the shooting, Scotty Hasting’s family met him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Corey said he can’t shake the image there of his brother “all drugged up, in body vacs to treat his wounds, couldn’t move his arms or legs.”
The whole family was there, but only Corey was in the room when Scotty took his first steps. The doctor on duty didn’t see it coming, but Scotty was determined to get himself to the restroom.
So, he stood up and walked there.
“My family is the reason I got up and walked,” Scotty said. “I’ve had amazing support. It’s been incredibly hard, but I never planned on doing anything but pushing myself through it.”
The timeline goes like this: Scotty and Cara Hasting got married on Dec. 30, 2010. A little less than four months later, Scotty was shot. In June 2011, after three years as a walk-on, Corey Hasting was put on full scholarship by Ohio University. In November 2011, Scotty was released from Walter Reed.
In April 2012, Scotty and Cara welcomed their second child.
Scotty Hasting is now back at Fort Riley in Kansas, working jobs he’s able to work and “constantly” undergoing physical therapy for his leg and hand injuries. He’s also a full-time fan of the Ohio University football team.
If an Ohio game broadcast is available via the Internet, Scotty finds a way to see it. When the Bobcats are on TV, Scotty doesn’t miss a play.
Last October, Scotty was there when Corey and Ohio University played at Rutgers.
With Ohio at 5-0 this season, there are some really big games ahead.
“Corey is tearing it up this year,” Scotty said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”
Scotty worries that he won’t be employable in the short term when his military commitment ends. He sees things now in the bigger picture, though, and he believes he’ll eventually be fine.
“He’s handled it so well,” Corey said. “He’s open about it. He’s given speeches about it. He understands it could have been a lot worse. As terrible as this is, he’s turned it into a positive.
“It’s crazy. Gives me chills.”
Corey said he’s learned to appreciate “all the little things in life” a little more than he used to. He says he no longer lets a bad day or bad play on the football field get to him, and he often wears his brother’s military dog tags around his neck. He also has a necklace Scotty gave him before he went to Afghanistan.
They played “everything” together growing up. Corey said Scotty was the baseball player of the family, and Scotty said he knew Corey would “make it” as a football player long before he starred at Milford High School near Cincinnati.
Corey Hasting has 21 tackles, 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss so far in his final football season. But the stat that means the most to him is that he’s five-for-five in writing the words "4Him" in Scotty’s honor on his cleats before each game.
“That,” Scotty said, “means the world to me.”
