Boom! I felt the shock wave as the explosion of dust, rock, soot, and flesh enveloped around me. I flew forwards and landed on my face with the ground scraping at my uniform and other miscellaneous items of warfare that were attached to my outfit. As I lay sprawled out on the ground not knowing what had truly happened, and not being able eliminate the loud and only ringing sound in my head, I thought back to the day when this path started.
It was May 30, 2008 and I was graduating that clear and crisp Friday night. High school overall for me was never that great, due to that I never really cared about my grades even though I knew I could do really well. But as dusk was beginning to wane and I had never really thought about my future career or what I really wanted to do in my life. Granted many teachers did not believe that I would do much, due to my lack of concern, but my guidance councilor kept pressing me to do at least something rather than flip burgers for the rest of my life. But I guess this night was a wake up call for me to get up off my butt and at make some form of decision for my life. While I sat there listening to the seeming endless names of graduates, I went over in my head the careers I could possibly do. I thought about fast food and I decided nope, that would require me to stay in this area and never really get any real job promotions due to a lack of a college degree. I then proceeded to dwell on businesses and construction jobs. Again the first choice would require me to have some form of college and I refused to go to any college, but the second somewhat caught my attention due to myself enjoying building various models and having a small curbing job between my sophomore and junior year. But I knew I still would not get any significant job promotions in this area due to yet again a lack of a college education. But I did remember my buddy Dave telling me how when he joined the army that he could rise in what was called ranks and that they came with payment increases. So right then at that very moment I flat out decided I would join the army to. I thought the coolest part would be that there was no college education needed so my rash decision to join would have to do since what else was there for me to do?
Several weeks later, after having sworn in and taken an ASVAB test to see where I would best fit in the army, I found myself on a bus to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for basic and then my Army individual training. Since I still was interested in some kind of construction work, I discovered that there was a branch in the army that was called the Army Corps of Engineers and I had done well enough on my ASVAB test to get this branch. Nevertheless I had made several friends on the bus journey. Since the military enjoys using last names, I all knew them by last name and many were interesting names like Bustamante, Sanders, Steele, Coleman, and even a long name that was weird and hard to say; so we all just called him by his first name John. Despite all the friends I had made on that bus ride little would prepare me for the coming days of basic. Every day it was always being yelled at in the face and you could not do anything but yell back “yes drill sergeant!” If someone did try to disagree it was always a group punishment with many push ups and other vigorous activities that would leave anyone breathless and in pain. But despite all this hard stuff, I learned many aspects about how war is conducted and even got to go to a shooting range and qualify for accuracy. Apparently I found out that I am actually great at accuracy despite the fact that I never really handled a gun when I was growing up. But after having made it through basic training, Army individual training was no picnic either. While going through basic I found out that several of my buddies wanted to do engineering as well as I did, so this made things somewhat easier throughout AIT since we had all developed a strong brothers in arms friendship as some call it. Nevertheless AIT was still very challenging to get through but the training was more fun since I learned how to build a bridge while being shot at in the middle of a war zone and still manage to fire back at whoever was attacking me and my brothers. Despite this training, I actually decided to sit down and think about my life now in the army one Saturday on a “break” that my authorities gave me and my brothers. The biggest thing I noticed was that I surprised myself in that I was actually doing well with all the knowledge that was presented to me, despite my laziness in high school. I even increased in rank twice since I first began this path, so I guessed I was at least doing something right with my learning capacity by finally paying attention to what authorities had to say. I also noticed that I had more to give since I had pushed myself beyond my limits a few times throughout my training. Though I wished at that moment I had done better in high school now knowing with full confidence that I had more to give, I had to not dwell on such matters and press on with the path that I had set out before me so as not to get distracted, because I learned that a distracted soldier is a dead soldier. As the end of my AIT drew near, I found out that my unit was being deployed shortly to Afghanistan so as to relieve another engineer unit. Though I wished I had some free time after AIT, I actually wanted to go since I would finally get to do all that I had trained for here over there where the real action was; and hey, I might even get a promotion to increase in rank. But I knew that I would have to face facts: some soldiers do not get to come back. Having the full realization that there always was this possibility, I decided to call my parents and let them know what was going to happen. When I was younger I had somewhat of a relationship with them, but as I got older I did not like the idea of people telling what to do or how to live my life, so I did what I thought would any sane teenage boy would do: go live with my grandparents. Boy have I changed since this all began though. Nevertheless I called them up, and I apologized for everything I had said and done and I admit there were tears shed on both sides. But I learned that even though I did hurt them both, they still loved me and been praying for me. I never really was into the idea of an all supreme authoritative God, but after talking to my parents for well over an hour, I decided that maybe one day I might give that notion a chance.
I was now leaving for Afghanistan and was excited and nervous at the same time. But as I landed the first thing my authorities told me was that “you are now within the enemy’s cannon fire range.” I was not really shocked by this idea, but it still weighed heavy on my mind and would continue to do so for the next several days. After several weeks at my patrol base and going “beyond the wire” meaning on patrol to do raids on enemy fortifications, we never had been hit by enemy cannon fire, until now……..
As I came to, the ringing was still loud in my head and several brothers were trying to get me up and speak to me. I could see that their lips were trying to say something to me but I was never really good at reading lips. They kept pointing at something lying on the ground about twenty feet from where I was sprawled out on the ground. Suddenly I realized that it was not a thing they were pointing at; it was someone. I got up despite my trauma and ran to him. He was not moving and medics were frantically working at dressing the huge gashes on his legs and part of his chest. As I looked at his face I realized that this young man was the same gentleman who was beside me when the explosion went off. I did not really know who he was since he was one of the new brothers, but I realized at that shocking moment that he had grabbed me and had thrown me out of the way of the incoming cannon fire. My very heart had hurt since this guy never really knew who I was or where I had come from, but he still cared about me enough to lay his life down for mine. I began to have tears well up in my eyes, and I grabbed his hand and I began to shake him violently thinking that he would somehow come back to this world. My shaking did not prevail as one of the bothers told me it was too late. I immediately got up and went to the barracks and cried vehemently. Some even joined me in my grief as I looked around and observed that some where there to do the same. Despite this, another new brother came in and joined me in grieving, but he had an old leathery worn out book cradled in his hands. He came up to me and gave me this worn out book and explained that it was the young man’s Bible that he had brought with him. I just cried all the more having somewhat known what its contents beheld. I opened it when the young brother before me put it in my hands, and turned to a page that had a book marker in it. The highlighted verse read “greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.” I could not believe that this very verse is exactly what the young man had done for me, so I figured if this book had convinced this young man to believe in its contents and even put it into practice I had better do the same, for I knew this was what my parents had explained to me about God.
That night I read more and more of its contents and finally found a section on salvation from our sins or ourselves as some side notes put it. I could not deny any longer that God had used that young man that day to save my life physically, but God had already gave his life for me spiritually and loved me in spite of all my faults. So I placed the worn out Bible next to my cot and got on my knees and prayed that God would forgive me for my past and present mistakes. Even though some brothers watched me do this and whispered some spiteful remarks, I did not care for they had not been through what had previously occurred earlier that day. I knew at that moment of salvation from God, I was free and I could let go of my secret hurts and pains from my past and could finally forgive myself for what I had done to my parents and myself. From that day forward I lived my life according to that worn out old Bible, and I knew that my story had to be told. So I found out that I could become a Chaplin and tell the good news that this old leathery Bible held between its cover. And to this very day I still use that old leathery worn out old Bible when I tell my story in a chapel service, and many brothers have come to know God’s love for them all because a young man willing laid his life down for me, and I very much hope that I meet that young brother, only now brother in Christ, in heaven when God finally calls me home.
