I am flying on a C-17 flying to Andrews AFB. I have finished my second tour in Iraq and now I am accompanying about 40 injured home. I am on this flight as a medical attendant for an Army Sergeant who was shot in the back by the Taliban after leaving a “Peace talk” meeting the US Army had set up to help the Afghani and Pakistani border guards get along. As he and his fellow soldiers left the meeting they were ambushed by members of the Taliban from behind. He was shot in the back three times. He requires an attendant so continuous pain medicine can be slowly dripped directly over his spinal nerves (an epidural) for pain relief. It is an honor to leave my deployment in Iraq in this manner.
I am excited to be on my way home but it has not been certain that I would be leaving on time. I was originally schedule to be at a different base, but was changed at the last minute so my skills in pediatric critical care could be used to treat the growing number of Iraqi children who are being cared for at the Air Force Theater Hospital due to the increased targeting of civilians. In fact, there are reports that children are sometimes deliberately shot by the terrorists because an injured child will definitely bring the US military out in the open to rescue the child. Since I was changed at the last moment, my orders were not changed, thus the giant system in the sky that controls how and when service members leave Iraq, thought I was somewhere else and had me leaving at a much later date, even after all of my duties at Balad were finished.
There is a reason I am getting home on time: The prayers of the righteous. In James it states, “The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful.” James 5: 16b When it looked like I was going to be delayed, the wife that God has so blessed me with called our righteous friends and family to a time of prayer. There were days when I could sense God’s encouragement. There were also days when I was discouraged. I was in the midst of birth pangs and I wanted them to be over. I knew in my heart that God would accomplish His perfect will and I really hoped it included me coming home on time. After weeks of waiting, I received my answer 12 hours before I would leave the country. God miraculously put it on people hearts and minds to allow me to leave. The details are very complicated, but the final reason that I am on this plane on this day is because of an Iraqi child who continues to need our help and needed a sample hand carried to Germany. The reason I felt I so desperately needed to be home, is another chapter of my life that is still being written and may be shared at a later date. Some may remember from my last tour, I had a very similar situation occur and God interceded at the last moment to bring me home. God has taken me through the same situation twice. I am afraid I am not learning a lesson He is trying to teach this very slow learner.
A man of my age who is directly across from me at my eye level is on a litter and is going home as well but he has lost a leg. Words are inadequate to express my thankfulness to my heavenly Father for getting me home…whole.
I have once again seen the absolute best and worst of what man can do. I leave Iraq for the second time changed and with scars few will ever see; but, it is still well my soul. This following song has kept me glad in the midst of trials for 26 years:
In these days of confused situations
In these nights of a restless remorse
When the heart and soul of a nation
Lay wounded and cold as a corpse
From the grave of the innocent Adam
Comes a song bringing joy to the sad
Oh your cry has been heard and the ransom
Has been paid up in full
Be Ye Glad
Now from your dungeon a rumor is stirring
You have heard it again and again
But this time the cell keys there turning
And outside there are faces of friends
And though your body lay weary from wasting
And your eyes show the sorrow they have had
All the love that your heart is now tasting
Has opened the gates
Be Ye Glad
So be like lights on the rim of the water
Giving hope in a storm sea of night
Be the refuge amidst the slaughter
Of these fugitives in their flight
For you are timeless and part of a puzzle
You are winsome and young as a lad
And there is no disease or no struggle
That can pull you from God
Be Ye Glad
Be Ye Glad
Be Ye Glad
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord
Be Ye Glad, Be Ye Glad, Be Ye Glad
BE YE GLAD
Solis Deo Gloria
Duke
