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| Some veterans are adopting the semicolon as a symbol of their ongoing recovery and as a reminder that suicide is an irreversible period, and never the answer. |
His customer showed him the prosthetic foot he wore as a result of his service, but described the emotional wounds he suffered from the war as being far more traumatic than the loss of a limb. Too many of his fellow soldiers, he lamented, had committed suicide since returning to civilian life, adding to his own anguish as he pursued his personal journey of recovery.
One indelible memory he felt good about, however, was about the day he was on a routine patrol and came upon an Iraqi civilian with a gun aimed directly at him. He instinctively got the perceived attacker in his sights and was about to pull the trigger when he realized his target was a child, or at most an adolescent.
"At that instant I knew I could never in good conscience kill a kid," he said, and instead chose to rush toward him to physically disarm him. In those next adrenaline-driven seconds he prayed desperately that any incoming bullet would be aimed at his ballistic vest so that his life could be spared.
Upon tackling his presumed enemy to the ground, he saw that he was not only a child but that he held only a toy gun. "I could have never lived with myself if I had killed that kid," he said.
This was the proudest moment of his entire time in combat, he said, knowing he had saved the life of a child. And maybe realizing he had saved his own life as well.
My prayer on this Memorial Day is that God will bring healing to all who suffer from the devastation of war, and that we each do whatever we can to bring all war making to an end.
2 comments:
Harvey, I thank you for your Memorial Day Post. This year's Memorial Day is poignant for me as our oldest grandson prepares for deployment as a Army medic. He says that his job to keep his buddies safe and I know that he will do his job well. Have a wonderful day, my friend.
blessings and best wishes on your grandson.
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