I sat alone, surrounded by filing cabinets filled with medical charts. It was early in the evening. Our reserve medical unit was off duty but as usual I had paperwork to catch up on. The phone rang. I expected it to be one of my fellow airmen with an invitation for the evening. To my surprise, it was it was my active duty counterpart, the NCO in charge of Flight Medicine for Scott AFB. We exchanged pleasantries and he asked me to pull some charts from our files. As I wrote the names down of pilots, nurses and medical corpsmen, all of which I knew, I asked why he needed the charts. It was for the after crash investigation, he told me. Was this some kind of joke, I asked? No, it was part of a larger exercise. He had made sure our unit was participating, prior to making his request. Unfortunately for me, we had never done this sort of thing before and it was totally unexpected. As I pulled those records that evening, I never felt more alone. This was just an exercise but my heart sank with every name I read. I loved these people. They brought great knowledge, skill, devotion to duty and sacrifice for their fellow man. It was that evening where I learned an even deeper appreciation for those who take risks for others. It’s something that I’ll always remember and intend to share with others.
I write this reflecting on this week’s tragedy in Kirkwood. I have so much sympathy for these dedicated public servants, their families, colleagues and friends. God bless you all.
3 comments:
Mike, I know what your saying is true my friend. My wife and I lost friends in that tradgedy, and we will miss them very much!
I believe this fit's here my friends.
Too Busy for a Friend...
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in VietNam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary"
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists"
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
Tom Ford
And some would take exception to how much a public servant should get paid... When he has never truly been one!
I'm not sure I understand.
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