One night in the Combat Support Hospital there was a stryker team that was brought in. Their vehicle had burned after being shot up while on patrol. There were a couple of guys with modest injuries. What made it worse was that it was a friendly fire incident. Two strykers out on patrol came close to each other. One didn’t recognize the other and fired. It was just a bad circumstance all the way around. Thankfully, no one died.
They were sitting around the treatment area trying to sort it all out. There was a moment of silence and then they just all started laughing. It’s hard to describe the camaraderie, the ability to take life and death encounters in stride. Most people would not be able to understand how these guys could laugh together and not be devastated by what almost happened to them.
In my experience, I wasn’t impressed with any one individual more than the general rank and file’s willingness to be there, suck it up, and complete the mission. It’s a testament to our country’s true strength that these men do their jobs, survive multiple brushes with death, and to ultimately find meaning in something of which a large part of our country fails to see value. Most Americans do not understand the quality of people that our country can put on the ground in foreign lands.
Most Americans also do not understand the intestinal fortitude required to go through life threatening events and laugh out loud. Soldiers face hardships and shoulder burdens that the average American cannot fathom. Yet, under the hardship a lot of true character is revealed. That night in the CSH, it was revealed in laughter.
Whatever happens in our lives, dear Lord, restore to us your joy, your love, your hope, your peace. Strengthen our faith when it’s tested and tried. May we always stay true to you until the very end.
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:17–18)