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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | June 2007 
Three Medics and a War
 David Lord - PVNN
| | Their laughter a little muted by the heaviness of their imminent deployment to the war in Iraq, Jeff, Sean and David celebrate their upcoming graduation as Combat Medics. |
I arrived at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio hoping to find a room available from base lodging as a space "A" category retired Marine. I have made this trip to the USA many times.
This time I left Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday afternoon and, by Thursday afternoon, was ready to rest. I was fortunate enough to be given a two room suite at the visitors quarters, so I lucked out ... this time.
My plan was to rest up, drive to the Houston VA the next morning to get my prescriptions filled, and return to Randolph that same day before making the long drive home to Puerto Vallarta on Sunday.
I returned here Tuesday at one am. This drive seemed longer than usual, so today it is harder to get my thoughts down in writing, and to convey this real life occasion in a simple, easy, flowing form for my article.
I met the soldiers around 6 pm, while walking my dog Lunar. They called to Lunar, who waited for permission from me to investigate the strangers, then I followed him over to introduced ourselves.
They told Lunar and I that they were Combat Medics celebrating their upcoming graduation on June 6th. It would be a special day, that date marking both D-day and Graduation Day for them. It made them all the more proud.
The evening temperature was perfect under the shade of the oak trees, and as I watched the three of them preparing their favorite dishes for the B.B.Q. grill, they invited me to stay awhile.
Eventually, I shared my story of how I had needed a Corpsmen once, and in fact, how I owed my life to a Corpsmen/Medic after being hit in combat almost forty years ago. They wanted to see my leg and the nick from a fifty-one caliber round, so I obliged.
They were impressed by the amount of missing mass from my calf even now so many years later. This was more than a wound, it was my permission to discuss and share with them all that combat had been to me and would be to them.
They told me that their training program had washed out 210 of the 500 men and women that started. Two hundred and eighty-seven others, and especially these three, had bonded during training, doing the full course because of one another.
This meal was their way of saying thank-you to one another and celebrating this major event in their lives. Although I did not expect to meet up with these three medics, it was chance, or maybe fate, because in these next few hours we became friends for life.
While each of them was preparing their favorite dish for the dinner, the respect for one another was evident, their laughter a little muted by the heaviness of their imminent deployment to the war in Iraq.
First to go is Jeff, he has a wife and three children at age 29, and says the Army has given him the ability to take pride in his life. He said as a young black man he did not know if life would get better, but the Army gave him the chance. He will not be going home to see his wife and children, as he will be deployed first, leaving a day or so after graduation. He will be in combat within a week of that departure.
Sean is the youngest Medic at age 28, a full ten years older than most of us who enlisted and went to Viet Nam. He is single, but sends half his twelve hundred dollar check home to his mother each month.
She is a widow of a Viet Nam veteran who died of cancer (probably due to exposure to agent orange) on June 2nd 2000 - exactly seven years ago that night. Sean had not realized this until he told me the date.
He then blinked, taken aback that he had not remembered, his mind has been so full of moment to moment duties, he'd had no time to recall it till now. I saw in that moment and felt through his eyes all the sadness that we possess for those we love and lose.
I then told him that I would help provide the pension benefit his mother is entitled to as a survivor of a Veteran. Sean took one of the two dog tags from around his neck and gave one to me. When I asked "why?" he said he could replace the tag, but would never find another like me, that he would always remember me for who I was and for offering to help his Mom, so I should keep the tag and remember him.
The older Medic is David, who at age 38, has four kids and a wife back home. He re-enlisted to serve others in this war, and to become a Medic was his calling. I asked him why he is willing to risk so much in going to war. His reply was, "If I can save just one eighteen year old, and have him or her go on to be a father like me, it will be worth it."
I can remember thinking almost exactly the same thing, but my version was, "if I can save just one old guy with a family and get him back to the world safe, it will be worth it."
The code of Honor is the same as it has always been for all the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors in all the wars past and present. The difference, as always, is in the small things we find out later.
Things unheard of and disgraceful, like out-patient housing at Walter Reed, and the fact that these Medics' final graduation meal will cost each one of them and each person they invite ten dollars and fifty cents to attend - ten dollars for the meal and another fifty cents for the guest speaker. Personally I hope that the Guest Speaker and the Generals choke on this Graduation Meal.
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at david.lord@yahoo.com.
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