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thedrifter
05-05-06, 01:03 PM
05.05.2006
American By God’s Amazing Grace
By Matthew Dodd

A good friend of mine once gave me this bit of advice about writing: "Write what you know, and know what you write." I believe that advice has served me well over the years as a personal mental checklist process for deciding whether I have enough knowledge of a subject to write an article.

I also firmly believe in the adage, "The Lord works in mysterious ways." With me, I believe He likes to put a series of "things" in my life to test my ability to recognize and learn from these seemingly random, yet carefully placed, patterns of coincidence. I know enough about me to know that I could not be sharp enough to catch them all. These tests have been going on for years, and He shows no signs of letting up so I still must have more to learn.

Today I am writing about one of those tests and what I learned from it...

About a month or two ago, I heard the end of a song on my car radio that momentarily froze time for me. It was one of those "A-Ha!" times when I realized I had stumbled onto something important and meaningful. As is so typical of our hyper-stimulus times, despite me saying to myself, "I have got to find out who sang that song and listen to the whole thing," I was distracted off that thought by the time I got home. About two weeks later, I heard a disk jockey say the singer's name and then the title of the song that I had just missed. I did not catch the singer's name (obviously distracted again), but the title was crystal clear for it was what I had guessed it would be after listening to the end of the song a couple weeks earlier.

This time, I remembered the title and immediately looked it up on the internet when I got home. I quickly found the singer's name, then I found the lyrics. After reading the lyrics, I had another "A-Ha!" moment, and remember staring at the words on my computer screen. After absorbing the messages from the lyrics for a couple of minutes, I felt compelled to order the singer's compact disc so I could hear the whole song and not just the website's 30-second sample I listened to over and over again.

The singer's name is Luke Stricklin, a National Guard infantryman and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran with 12 months in Baghdad, and his song is, "American By God's Amazing Grace."

"The bottom of my boots sure are gettin' worn
And there's a lot of holes in this faded uniform
My hands are black with dirt and so is my face
I ain't never been to hell but it couldn't be any worse than this place."

This excerpt deals with the matter-of-fact realities of the life of a deployed warrior. I wonder how many times those words been thought and spoken through the ages, in countless countries and in countless languages. I wonder how many folks back here "in the real world" truly appreciate the volumes spoken and implied in those seven lines: the too-long time spent away from home; the monotony of daily "routine" duties broken by the sudden insanity of combat; life and death doing a perverted dance in a dirty, sub-human environment shared by a brotherhood of warriors dedicated to each other and their shared mission.

The bottoms of boots do not get noticeably worn unless they are constantly being used. After the initial break-in, boots reach a point of natural comfort, like a second skin or an extension of your feet. From the time you wake, until the time you take them off to air out your feet (which could be measured in hours (if you are lucky), days, or even weeks depending on the mission's requirements), boots are in action. Uniforms are also definitely extended-wear items, but most warriors will have more than one uniform. Seeing little holes and improvised patch jobs on uniforms is common, but shabby or ragged uniforms are not good in combat zones.

Personal hygiene is always important for health reasons, but warriors instinctively know that combat zone hygiene is much different than peacetime hygiene. I believe it has something to do with a general toughening of warriors' immune systems. Their bodies can tolerate and withstand much more dirt, dust, sweat, filth, and odor than their mothers would have ever imagined. In a world where bathing is a luxury, dirty hands and faces are the norm. Add in heat, wind, rain, mud, flies, insects, and, oh yes, a determined enemy who will do anything he can to kill you and as many of your fellow warriors as possible as quickly and as often as possible, and you have the warriors' environment, a true hell on earth.

"Tell my wife "Don't worry 'cause I know what to do"
It makes you feel better sometimes, but I don't know if it's true.
I know if I die, it's just my time to go
But I pray to God everyday, that I make it back home."

For many of today's deployed warriors, they have families back home. Balancing the challenges of separation and uncertainty on both sides of a combat deployment certainly takes its toll on even the best of relationships. How does a warrior comfort his spouse half a world away when those challenges morph into doubt and fear? The answer is anything that works, and sometimes nothing at all. How does a warrior deal with his own doubts and fears? Sometimes the answer is the stoic strength found in a faith in prayers to a higher power that transcends life on earth.

"For the last 12 months I've had a new address
The neighborhood smells like sewage and the streets are lined with trash.
You never know what's gonna be the next thing to explode
But unlike these people, I have another home.
It breaks my heart to see these kids out on the streets
Walkin' barefoot through the trash, begging for something to eat.
I give 'em what I got, just to let 'em know I care
And I thank God, it's not my son that's standing there."

I know to many people around the world, our citizens are despised as infidels and "ugly Americans." I guess those narrow-minded and misinformed people are just incapable of seeing and appreciating the honor, courage, and commitment of our compassionate warriors who volunteer to serve in some of the worst and most dangerous places known to man to bring freedom and the hope of a better life to those less fortunate peoples of the world. To me, having the ability to simultaneously be "no better friend, no worse enemy" to others is one of the most beautiful things in today's hyper-dynamic combat zone.

"If you want to talk about it, you better keep it short

'Cause I got a lot of lost time I gotta make up for.
I really don't care why Bush went in to Iraq
I know what I done there and I'm damn sure proud of that.
If you got something bad to say about the USA
You better save it for different ears unless you want to crawl away.
And I'll laugh in your face, when you say you've got it bad
Until you've spent some time on the streets of Baghdad."

I have not been on the streets of Baghdad, and I have the deepest respect for those warriors who have been there doing all that they have done. How shameful it is that so many political pundits and anti-war activists will dismiss, distort, and denigrate warriors' actions just to advance their own agendas. Hey, disagree all you want with why we got involved in Iraq, and disagree all you want with our approach and handling of the Iraqi reconstruction effort, but do so in a way that does not diminish the deeds and heroics of the individual warriors who were and still are there. If individual warriors can be proud of their efforts, why do so many people back home find it so difficult to celebrate those very same efforts?

I deliberately saved the refrain or chorus for last because it is so pregnant with meaning for me. As a retired Marine officer watching my toddler son grow and develop, I am now better able to put in perspective what I learned from my globe-trotting active duty experiences. My country, while not as perfect as I would like her to be, is still the best country in the world:

"Well when you've seen what I've seen
Things don't seem so bad
You quit worrying 'bout what you ain't got,

And thank God for what you have
Because I could be raising my family in this place
But I was born an American by God's amazing grace."

*NOTE: If you would like to know more about Luke Stricklin and his incredible song, visit his website at www.lukestricklin.com.

Ellie