His name is Ryan. And I hope he gets a chance to read this before he’s shipped over to Kuwait. He’s an audio operator at our station. Wish I could say I had some deep conversations with him, but for the most part is was just the joking around that comes between anchors and the technical crew. He’s a nice kid, clean-cut, polite, got a little party in but not too much.

About a month ago he came into the station with his helmet and some of his gear to tell us he might be called up in the reserves. I was shocked to learn that his job is dismantling land mines. In his words, “he’s the guy in all that funny looking Sumo wrestling gear that gets to blow himself up if he does something wrong!”
I asked him why he chose that job and he told me because he thought it would be exciting. I asked him if he was afraid of dying. He said he wasn’t and that he has a strong faith and God will take care of him.

Then, two weeks ago he came in to show me the ring he had bought for his fiancée, along with the picture of an ultrasound of his baby girl. He was so proud of the baby, his fiancée, his job with us, and his military service. And then, after one of the shows he came up to me and told me he was taking off for a while and he’d see me when the war was over. Boom, he’s gone…. heading to one of Saddam’s mine fields around the oil wells, or to the thousands of other mine fields and booby traps that Saddam’s forces have hidden. Saddam can’t win the war, but he will do whatever it takes to kill as many Americans as he can along the way.

It’s not just Ryan. There’s another kid I know who is on an AWAC crew flying over that region. His name is Brian. I talked to his ever-so-proud and ever-so-worried father recently. Now that the trigger is about to pulled, those boys are on my mind and my heart. I have two sons of my own. One is 21 and the other 18. They could be putting their lives on the line had they chosen the military.

Yes, I am one of those who believe we have been forced into the position of having to take action against a nut case. I have prayed and prayed that a peaceful solution could be found. But as the will of the World Community continues to crumble under the weight of self interests, I have grown worry of a tyrant making fools play out of world leaders. History should have taught us we can’t afford to take chances with insane men who have weapons that could kill millions. It angers me that we and our allies supplied Saddam with the very weapons we now must destroy. I’m not surprised the French and Germans and Russians and Chinese have curled up like sleeping dogs. Truth has always depended on those willing to sacrifice their own lives to correct the wrong that men do. We, as a Christian nation, act out of that example of sacrifice portrayed by Jesus.

I’m sure Ryan and Brian didn’t wake up one morning and Jesus was standing at the foot of their beds and said,” Go ye therefore and kill Saddam Hussein.” I know both guys prayed about it before they enlisted and felt the military was a good fit. No one wants to think of actually fighting and dying for your country, yet these boys, and hundreds of thousands of other buys and girls, men and women are about to encounter the supreme test of their lives, and possibly the most important conflict since World War II. Our youth, the flower of our nation, the best and brightest and toughest and yes, maybe unluckiest for some, are going to do what other Americans have done in the past. They have looked beyond their own self-interest toward the principles that separate our nation from the rest. They are entering a conflict to preserve liberty for men, women and children they’ve never seen. They are exposing themselves to the rage of fanatics committed to their deaths in order to feed and cloth and befriend millions who have never tasted the sweet wine of freedom.

It does not seem right that we are all still here at home, debating the matter, even protesting war in general. It does not seem right that tonight we will bother and fuse about drive time traffic, about income taxes, about politicians making rear ends of themselves. It does not seem right that we even care who wins an Oscar or the Final Four of basketball.

Ryan and Brian and our troops are doing what many people in this world no longer have a stomach for. They are confronting evil for the benefit of those too stupid or too medicated by mediocrity to know the poison of pacifism even as the cup is placed to their lips.

I will never look at Ryan and Brian the same way again. These aren’t lost young men looking for answers. These are heroes who will live their convictions and find within themselves strength and character the rest of us could only wish to attain.

God Bless our Troops. God Bless Ryan and Brian. We salute you this day!

Al Ruechel, Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved

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