~ Kommentary by Kritter ~

A Soldier's Story II

A while back I put up an entry about my friend Patrick who is now serving as a medic in the Army in Baghdad. He's in some really dangerous places and has sent some scary e-mails. This one, however, is both sobering and heartlifting. I hope you get a chance to read it.

Patrick always signs his name with a Wf after it. This part of the e-mail addresses why. Also, he just found out that he will be able to come home for 2 weeks at the holidays! Yay!

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Some of you have asked me what the Wf stands for after my name. I figured I would share my most recent Wf story.

Towns around here are very torn about our presence. Some of the kids cheer as we drive by, while other jeer and throw rocks. I don't blame them... but it is hard to keep a good perspective when you have explosives going off all around you on a regular basis.

We entered one town, mainly Sunni and i could sense the tension immediately. We didn't help matters either... by immediately searching a group of military aged men at gun point. We were about to leave, when I saw a kid peeping around a corner at us. She wasdefinitely interested, but also really scared. So I walked to edge of the property and pulled out a little stuffed plush toy (I think it was a unicorn) and the girl very hesitant at first, ran out and took it. Soon many more kids came out to meet us.

I noticed that one kid had a hole in his cheek. I asked him if I could look at it. Through my broken Arabic and his broken English coupled with lots of arm signals, he told me that he had been hit by shrapnel from an "insurgent" grenade. He couldn't afford a hospital... so I cleaned the wound, repacked it and gave him so supplies so that he could keep it clean.

When I turned around the village elder had brought out throngs of kids and adults who were suffering from various ailments. A couple hours later I was exhausted, but I could sense that we had made some friends. They brought us chai and fresh baked bread.

The reason I wanted to share this story with you... is that is goes back to the single most important and probably most powerful principle that CASC (my HS student government organization)teaches young leaders. That is the power of a warmfuzzy.

Whether it a plush toy, a piece of candy, or a kind word in Arabic... warmzuzzies are without doubt the single greatest defense against the insurgents. More then the tanks, the armor and big guns. And just when I thought I was the only one who believed this, we had a briefing by our Division Commander (2-star general in charge of 12,000 troops). He said the single greatest force protection measure we can implement is being nice to the locals. My jaw dropped, here was the commanding general of the 1st Calvary division saying, in ARMY terms of course, that warmfuzzies will protect us more then a 500 lb bomb.

Now can you guess why I choose to sign Wf after my name?

Posted by kristen at December 16, 2004 03:22 PM | TrackBack