Posted on 11/26/2003 9:10:03 AM PST by ALOHA RONNIE
...and one JOE GALLOWAY.
Tears of gratitude, and extra prayers on this special day for you and our troops at Walter Reed ~ and for all those who love and care for them.
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Our Troops at Christmas - (Dec 1776 - Dec 2003)- Dec 25th, 2003
Ronnie, I dropped "Holiday" from the thread title on my homepage. Perhaps you could ask the Admin Mod to do the same for the thread. I expect this thread will have a very long run at FR.
8 Humor helps at the Military's Walter Reed Medical Center ~ The Turret Online | 1/07/04 | Jamie Reese
TNt's heading to WR this Saturday - taking "jellybeans, chicks, banana-flavored "peanuts", a bag of real peanuts that was a special request, licorice and Strawberry Twizzlers, another personal request."
She is also offering to share any messages, Easter cards, FR troop rally threads..."I'll print out anything anyone wants me to take in, and hand it to them myself." (so they don't get stuck in a bag in some office (says RC)).
Letters, cards, pictures, poems, songs, jokes, prayers - often end up on the walls of the rooms at Walter Reed.
Freepmail TNt: http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/mail-compose?to=TruthNtegrity
Or post pics, "cards", jokes, stories, prayers - thanks to this thread - for visiting troops to see (and some of us to 'borrow' and share - thanks!).
There's an axiom, I forget the quote in the Bible that it come from or more correctly, is derived from, that the more you give, the more you get. (It is better to give than to receive" - part it doesn't mention how much you GET for giving!!!!)
I have never lived this more than the visits to Walter Reed. I go in, planning on giving cheer, some goodies, a little bit of my time, the offer of prayer for their recovery and lots of grins.
And I leave having gotten so much more than I think I've given away.
One man whose face had been shot off, well, the right side of it anyway, went through major reconstructive surgery, FIVE times. The first time I met him he told me he had one more to go but truthfully, I couldn't see what else there was to do - maybe remove something on the inside that was no longer needed or a screw in his jaw? But politely I didn't ask, I just innocently said that I thought he looked fine. He grabbed a photo - a before shot of him in his uniform - his 'official photo' and then a picture the Docs had taken when he had arrived. I couldn't help it - when I saw his mangled, misshapen face, tears just poured down my face.
He grabbed my hand, and said, "Oh, Darlin', I didn't mean to do that to you. Look at me. Ain't I prettier now than I ever was?" and he was grinning this huge grin.
The truth is, the Docs had done such a marvelous job (had to work on both sides of his face to make them "even") - he was, in fact, better looking now than he had been. Through tears, I started laughing at his "ain't I prettier now.......?" and we were both laughing now.
When I asked him if there was something I could pray for him (this gives them a chance to just tell me but most immediately thrust out their hand for me to hold, while I pray for them), this insufferable jokester said that he wanted women to love him for himself and not for his looks. Again I laughed - so did he but suddenly I realized, he MEANT it - he was/is better looking now and he was concerned that his looks might now mean more than they had before. My hand shot out, grabbed his and I prayed for him. I prayed that God would show him that he had always looked this way, that from the time he was born, God knew that someday this would happen and that he would look as he did now, that He'd been preparing him for what would come next and that inside, although he'd changed alot there too, he was ready to take on the plans that God has always had for his life.
We both said "Amen" together and now we both had tears rolling down our faces. I asked him if I could give him a hug Goodbye - and his eyes suddenly filled again - "I haven't had a hug from a lady in 17 months. Please, do."
I bent over and wrapped my arms around him, sitting in his day chair, and as I did, he stood up, all 6'4" of him, and hugged me so hard, I feared for a possible broken rib, but I hugged him back, as hard as I could. We stood there in this touching "touch" of hug for what seemed like 5 minutes. When I felt him start to relax, I looked up in his face, and there was this contented look, a different smile on his face.
He told me on my next visit that he felt like I'd saved his life. He said, "You know - they do all this medical stuff, they take good care of you but you don't get "touched", oh yeah, they give you backrubs because they know you need some form of touch, but you don't get "touched" like you need to, and for me, that's a hug. How did you know?" I confessed that I didn't know - I didn't specifically know that he needed it but I'd felt this prompting after praying for him, to offer to hug him. He told me he was convinced that God had told him that besides that prayer, that God had told me, "Hug him for me." "And, you did. You did what God told you to do." Now, early in this visit, I'm standing there, again, tears streaming down my face. You see - you can cry in front of them if they know why you're crying. But if they think it's because of pity, because of the severity of their injuries, they won't like that and I've never done that.
Now it's my turn to take his hand and thank him for what he was saying, and next I hear, "Well, what I'm hoping for is another one of those special hugs you have."
Now, do you think I refused?
The end of the story of this is this special forces warrior hero has gone to his home base to go before a medical board - and he hopes, return to Iraq, "to return to work with my buddies. We got important work to do over there." He told me earlier that he'd been part of the troops that were seeking insurgents and foreign fighters in Iraq when an IED was thrown into the vehicle he was in, and exploding before anyone could grab it and throw it out. The driver was killed, he was seriously injured and he was committed to going back to continue his work in his honor.
God loved them and bless them all, and keep them safe.
Trust me - I get far more out of this than I could possibly give away. I keep trying to give more than I get, but these guys are so wonderful, it never works out that way.
I was talking with a retired Navy vet last night, and told him about my visits to WR....his comment... "Visit the guys, write the reports to encourage others to do the same thing at VA Hospitals because some of these guys are sent home but to VA Hospitals near their home for continued therapy, and they need people to visit them there, too."
He's right.
Blessings,
From TruthNtegrity | 04/07/2004
Thanks to Freepers Aquamarine and dutchess and { A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....04-07-04...Easter Traditions for the Easter graphics.
~We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
I'll post it here too.
I've posted this before in other threads but I think it's worth posting again:
The Creation of the Soldier
When the Lord was creating Soldiers, he was into his sixth day of overtime
when an Angel appeared and said, "Your doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said "Have you read the specification on this person?
Soldiers have to be able to go for hours fighting or tending to a
person that the usual every day person would never touch, all the while putting
in the back of their mind the circumstances.
They have to be able to move at a moments notice and not think twice of what
they are about to do, no matter what danger.
They have to be in top physical condition at all times, running on half-eaten MRE's,
and very little sleep.
They must have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems, " said the Lord,
"it's the three pairs of eyes a Soldier has to have."
That's on the standard model? " asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through the smoke and haze where they and
their fellow Soldiers should fight the enemy next. Another pair here in the
side of the head to see their fellow Soldiers and keep them safe.
And a third pair of eyes in the front so that they can look for the the wounded
caught in the fight that may need their help."
"Lord" said the angel, touching his sleeve, " Rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't, said the Lord, "I already have a model that can carry a 100 pounds of gear
for miles on end, or a fellow soldier to safety from a battle area, and can feed a
family of five on a Military service paycheck."
The angel circled the model of the Soldier very slowly, "Can it think?"
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the parts of a hundred different pieces
of equipment; and can recite many procedures in their sleep that are needed to
care for a wounded soldier until they are taken away by the medics.
And all the while they have to keep their wits about themselves.
This Soldier also must have phenomenal personal control.
They can deal with scenes full of pain, hurt, noise and smoke,
They can be laughing and joking one second and fierce and hard in the next.
And still they rarely get the recognition for a job well done from anybody, other than from fellow Soldiers."
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the Soldier.
"There's a leak", she pronounced. "Lord, it's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's a tear from bottled-up emotions for fallen comrades.
A tear for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the flag.
It's a tear for all the pain and suffering they have encountered.
And it's a tear for their commitment to defending our freedoms and
saving lives of their fellow man!"
"What a wonderful feature Lord, you're a genius" said the angel.
The Lord looked somber and said "I didn't put it there."
Reworded from a Firefighters poem, to honor our Troops 3/26/03
by David K. (aka Johnny Gage)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.