For the most part war is the prime example of the illogical and perverse in human conduct. Very few wars are really called for and those that do have to happen can never be anything more than grim necessities, devoid of nobility and glory, devoid of all of the foolish facade of nonsense that jingoistic fools attach to it. But occasionally individual acts that are noble and heroic occur within this suffering and destruction, acts that remind us that the same human beings who participate in the destruction are also capable of participating in protecting and aiding their fellow human beings in need. They serve to remind us that when things are often at the very worst, there are those who will be at their very best.
Such is the case with US Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown*, a medic assigned to the 4/73d Cav serving in Afghanistan. Brown, 19, a native of Lake Jackson, Texas, has become the first woman serving in Afghanistan – and only the second since World War Two – to receive the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for gallantry in action.
On 25 April 2007, Specialist Brown acted without hesitation and at great risk to render aid to five soldiers wounded when a four-vehicle patrol was ambushed and their vehicle was destroyed by a roadside IED. Ignoring small-arms fire and mortar rounds, Brown grabbed her medic’s bag, left the relative safety of her own vehicle and dashed to the assistance of the wounded men. She treated them and helped move them to safer ground until they could be evacuated.
Brown’s actions were in the best traditions of the service and of the medic’s duties. Whatever we may feel about the uncertainties of the wars they are sent to fight, we should nevertheless remember the courage, the nobility and the dedication of soldiers like Monica Brown who serve in the most grim of human struggles.
Most sincerely,
T. J. Flapsaddle
*Source: (MSNBC) https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23547346/
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