Two months ago, I met a young man named Micheal. He had just come home from his 3rd tour of duty. This tour was served in Afghanistan.
It was supposed to be his last tour, but he'd only been home a week, and had already made the decision to re-up. Not because he missed it, or his buddies, but because he felt he had failed, and he needed to fix it.
To me he looked like he was just a child, all except his eyes. They held so much pain, that they could have been mistaken for someone very old, whose last days had been to much pain to bare.
Michael was a Medic, and one of the last things that he had to do before he shipped out to come home, was to work on a little two year old girl. She was very bad off, because of the blast from an IED. He needed to place an IV, but he couldn't get the needle to go though her skin. He told me it was like leather from the sun. He couldn't believe it because she was only a baby. He knew he had, to have, been hurting her, but she never made a sound. After 10 or 15 minutes of trying he finally called over another Medic to see if he could get an IV started. He couldn't, he did finally penetrate her skin with the needle but she was so little, he missed her vein. The little girl stared at Michael, the whole time he was stroking her cheek, while the other Medic was trying. Finally Michael said after another 15 minutes of trying the other Medic succeeded, and just as he did the little girl gave Michael the briefest of smiles,(or at least he thought/hoped she did) let out a last little breath of a sigh and died. He felt like, if only he could have gotten the IV in, she might have had a chance. If he hadn't failed, and it hadn't taken so long for him to call over the other Medic, she might have lived.
What this story hasn't told you, is that she was missing an arm, and bleeding profusely from a chest wound. But to Michael those didn't kill her, he did, all because he couldn't get that IV in. She was with him all the time in his mind and when he came home, nothing would take her place. So he chose to go back to try again.
These soldiers to, have a story, and even though I can't tell you what it is, I ask, would you please, honor them with your presence, and attention, like you did for Michael and the little girl. Your kindness would be appreciated.
In August, the 143rd month of the conflict, 53 coalition forces based in Afghanistan were killed -- the most in a single month since last September. Of these, five were from New Zealand, five from Australia, three from the UK, one from France, and the rest from the United States -- 50 men and 3 women ranging in age from 20 to 55. Collected below are images from the many ceremonies honoring the return of these 53 fallen soldiers. While the photographs may bear some similarities, keep in mind that each one represents a separate individual life lost in Afghanistan just last month. [41 photos]
