Conversation With Soldier Home From Iraq
I am not a soldier. Nor have I ever been one. But the work I do has led me into personal friendships with many of them. Currently I know 12 men and women deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, one who has just returned and two who have been "adopted" by my local church because they did not have any "home support" from family or friends.
Today I had coffee at Starbucks with a man home for two weeks on R & R from Mosul. We have emailed back and forth during these first 10 months of deployment. He has seen the worst of it over there. As a volunteer on the "rescue" team he was sent out to secure and recover damaged military vehicles and soldiers killed or injured by roadside bombs, ambushes and suicide car bombers. One victim was his base chaplain who later died of his injuries in Germany. At least one person from every unit in his base has died in Iraq except for his own unit. The tension is high as they realize that the odds are against their keeping a 100% casualty-clean record before they return home for good at the end of January.
At the front gate to the base, where he meets the local Iraqis employed by his unit he has watched as a woman driving a truck blew herself and two Iraqi bystanders to bits in a suicide explosion. One day, while standing guard duty 6 months ago, he counted 15 rpgs (rocket-propelled grenades) sail over his head directed at the base.
More recently he has stopped volunteering to collect the dead and wounded and has begun the difficult transition to begin thinking about the end of his deployment and a return to some measure of normalcy with his wife and two children, one of whom was not yet walking when he left for Iraq.
He tells me that at first he "hated" all Iraqis even though his Christian faith told him otherwise. As he has come to know many Iraqis personally both at work and in various community settings he has learned to appreciate the fact that most Iraqis are not hateful or violent and, in a confused sort of way, appreciative and supportive of not only the American troops but of President Bush in particular. Although he has seen much improvement in security over the past 10 months he is not convinced that the "jihadis" will disappear any time soon and that the desire to die in jihad, with its promise of guaranteed and instant entrance to paradise will continue to attract eager new volunteers almost as fast at others are killed or captured.
Although he did not support the political decision to enter Iraq in the first place he is both a good patriot and a good soldier. He knows that 9 to 11 months after his return he will likely be deployed back to Iraq for another tour of duty. If he had any say in the matter he would eagerly choose not to return. But he will fulfill his commitment and, I have no doubt, fulfill it well.
This will be the third time he has headed off to Iraq (due to a family crisis this has been his second "R & R" visit). Each time I have spoken and prayed with him and each time I have wondered whether he will come home alive or in one piece. I know his wife and children very well and I am amazed at her ability to cope with this reality. Our nation is indeed blessed by wonderful men and women giving all they have in service to our country. Their husbands, wives, children, parents, brothers, sisters, lovers and friends also share in this sacrifice and, remarkably, have also demonstrated an almost heroic ability to bear the stress with courage and with grace.
Every one of the deployed soldiers I know is a committed follower of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I have no doubt that this faith enables each of them to see this particular conflict in the larger context of history where God has already won the victory over evil, sin and death. To a one they are, as every Christian should be, optimists, seeking to keep their eyes open for the good they may do and giving thanks for any sign of good they might spot in the emerging nation struggling to "breathe free" as a democracy.
These soldiers carry a deep and profound sense of decency and high standards of personal moral integrity. I know through my correspondence with them that they struggle often with the Christian obligation to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Like myself and so many other Americans, they want only the highest and the best for the people of Iraq. Along with them we should pray daily that the Iraqi people will also desire this same ideal for themselves....and find the courage and determination to seize it while the window of opportunity is open.
Just before we left Starbucks my friend on leave from Mosul said something that caught me off guard. He said that he and his buddies had been watching the movie, "Band of Brothers." After comparing what they were experiencing in Iraq with what the survivors featured in the movie had experienced he said...well...he said that it made him feel like a wimp.
I must say that I was more than humbled by this man today. I count it a great privilege to count him as a friend.
Today I had coffee at Starbucks with a man home for two weeks on R & R from Mosul. We have emailed back and forth during these first 10 months of deployment. He has seen the worst of it over there. As a volunteer on the "rescue" team he was sent out to secure and recover damaged military vehicles and soldiers killed or injured by roadside bombs, ambushes and suicide car bombers. One victim was his base chaplain who later died of his injuries in Germany. At least one person from every unit in his base has died in Iraq except for his own unit. The tension is high as they realize that the odds are against their keeping a 100% casualty-clean record before they return home for good at the end of January.
At the front gate to the base, where he meets the local Iraqis employed by his unit he has watched as a woman driving a truck blew herself and two Iraqi bystanders to bits in a suicide explosion. One day, while standing guard duty 6 months ago, he counted 15 rpgs (rocket-propelled grenades) sail over his head directed at the base.
More recently he has stopped volunteering to collect the dead and wounded and has begun the difficult transition to begin thinking about the end of his deployment and a return to some measure of normalcy with his wife and two children, one of whom was not yet walking when he left for Iraq.
He tells me that at first he "hated" all Iraqis even though his Christian faith told him otherwise. As he has come to know many Iraqis personally both at work and in various community settings he has learned to appreciate the fact that most Iraqis are not hateful or violent and, in a confused sort of way, appreciative and supportive of not only the American troops but of President Bush in particular. Although he has seen much improvement in security over the past 10 months he is not convinced that the "jihadis" will disappear any time soon and that the desire to die in jihad, with its promise of guaranteed and instant entrance to paradise will continue to attract eager new volunteers almost as fast at others are killed or captured.
Although he did not support the political decision to enter Iraq in the first place he is both a good patriot and a good soldier. He knows that 9 to 11 months after his return he will likely be deployed back to Iraq for another tour of duty. If he had any say in the matter he would eagerly choose not to return. But he will fulfill his commitment and, I have no doubt, fulfill it well.
This will be the third time he has headed off to Iraq (due to a family crisis this has been his second "R & R" visit). Each time I have spoken and prayed with him and each time I have wondered whether he will come home alive or in one piece. I know his wife and children very well and I am amazed at her ability to cope with this reality. Our nation is indeed blessed by wonderful men and women giving all they have in service to our country. Their husbands, wives, children, parents, brothers, sisters, lovers and friends also share in this sacrifice and, remarkably, have also demonstrated an almost heroic ability to bear the stress with courage and with grace.
Every one of the deployed soldiers I know is a committed follower of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I have no doubt that this faith enables each of them to see this particular conflict in the larger context of history where God has already won the victory over evil, sin and death. To a one they are, as every Christian should be, optimists, seeking to keep their eyes open for the good they may do and giving thanks for any sign of good they might spot in the emerging nation struggling to "breathe free" as a democracy.
These soldiers carry a deep and profound sense of decency and high standards of personal moral integrity. I know through my correspondence with them that they struggle often with the Christian obligation to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Like myself and so many other Americans, they want only the highest and the best for the people of Iraq. Along with them we should pray daily that the Iraqi people will also desire this same ideal for themselves....and find the courage and determination to seize it while the window of opportunity is open.
Just before we left Starbucks my friend on leave from Mosul said something that caught me off guard. He said that he and his buddies had been watching the movie, "Band of Brothers." After comparing what they were experiencing in Iraq with what the survivors featured in the movie had experienced he said...well...he said that it made him feel like a wimp.
I must say that I was more than humbled by this man today. I count it a great privilege to count him as a friend.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 9:37 PM
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