MYTHBUSTERS
In every life there are moments, events, someone you meet, some unexpected epiphany that hits you and leaves a lasting impression. Better said, something that changes a long-held viewpoint, or simply enlightens you in some other way. For me, I've had a couple just in the last two weeks, that have caused me, at the very least, to spend an above-average amount of time reviewing in my mind what occurred, and why it had such an impact on me.
The national dialogue has centered around the war in Iraq for the last several years and the American media being what it is, slanted left, we are all overdosed with a somewhat myopic overview of the military. Senator John Kerry was credited with the remark that if you're rich and well-bred, there is "college, and for the rest, there is the military." There has long been an unspoken theory, of sorts, that joining the military is an undesirable option left for the least fortunate. A kind of high-stakes gamble that if you happen to see action, and survive it, the military will kick-in for your education. All of this is predicated on the "modern-military" and does not speak to the Word War II generation when nearly every able-bodied man, and many women, were called to arms. There was no selective picking from a particular social strata. If you could see and you had a pulse, you were in.
I have written in these columns before about my admiration for men of that generation, for the quiet stoicism, that was the hallmark of so many from that era. I have written about Jimmy Stewart, one of my favorite actors and people, who left a lucrative Hollywood career to use his piloting skills in the military. The top brass wanted to keep him in the States, training B-29 pilots, as Stewart was an excellent pilot and instructor, but he insisted on going to the lines where his skill would best serve his country. He was stationed in Buchenwald, England where he led a squadron, flew lead plane always, and was known to wait at the control tower until all his planes were back. That is, when all the planes made it back. His service is outlined in the remarkable book, "Jimmy Stewart:Bomber Pilot". There were others, too, and then the tens of thousands who weren't famous and gave just as fully. Still, somewhere along the journey from then to now, there was this shift in the paradigm, this slow-shift to group-think, that our mosre recent military was culled from the alleys of inner-city projects around the country.
I was swiftly brought back to reality when, last week, I had the privilege of interviewing Major Kevin Johnston, who grew up in Amherst, NH, and is in his 17th year in the military. He has been back home just five weeks after spending 18 months in Iraq and through a mutual friend I was able to share his letters from there over the last several months. Intensely bright, articulate, quick, compassionate. A guy who could have gone straight to college and carved out a wonderful life, but chose the military instead and gave the experience everything he had. Not a guy who had limited choices, just a guy who made a patriotic choice. Not blinded by patriotism to the point of being unable to be objective, but a depth of understanding about what this country is all about, and a willingness to try and understand what the Iraqi's are all about as well. I was, and still am, awe-struck at the caliber of this guy, and as he relates it, his brothers-in-arms as well.
This interview was followed by yet another inspirational young man on my June 1st radio show. Captain Scott Quilty, a Francestown, NH native and son of friends of mine, related his experiences in the military. Another stunningly bright young man, graduated cum laude from the University of New Hampshire, joined the military at 17 years of age. Scott was one of the thousands who interacted with an I.E.D. After just 60 days in Iraq, on October 2nd of 2006, he lost his right arm below the elbow and right leg below the knee in a roadside explosion. It is only because a physician's assistant happened to be in his group that he is still here to tell his story. He spent 18 months in Walter Reed Hospital, received his Purple Heart personally from President Bush while there, and married his girlfriend, also in the military as an Occupational Therapist, at Walter Reed, where she later transferred to be closer to him. Like Kevin, Scott has a frightening IQ, is learned beyond his years, has an outlook so balanced and pragmatic that it should serve as a benchmark for the rest of us. He is whole in spirit and soul, and is now involved with SurvivorCorps, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that is dedicated to creating and instituting programs to reach out to other veterans who have suffered loss of limbs, are suffering from PTSD, or any other help they may need in re-entering civilian society. You might think, after being through what Scott has been through, that the day to close the door on his Army footlocker couldn't come soon enough, but that is not the case. Incredibly, after literally giving of his physical, as well as emotional, self, for his country...he wants to give more.
So it is with some humility that I admit that I may have been slipping into that group-think about our military. It is easy to buy into that. But it is with profound pride that I express my deepest gratitude to Maj. Kevin Johnston and Capt. Scott Quilty, and all of your brothers and sisters that serve, for bringing me back from the brink. And thank you, as well, for reminding me that the Jimmy Stewart's of the world are not gone and, I suspect, that Mr. Stewart would consider Kevin Johnston and Scott Quilty "hale fellows, well met", and, I bet, damn good company. I wish you both a "Wonderful Life".
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