thedrifter
12-12-06, 06:54 AM
One picture worth a thousand tears
Tender hug in Iraq gets America's attention
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. -- An airman stationed at McConnell Air Force Base said he was initially embarrassed by national attention he received from a picture showing him cradling an injured, sleeping Iraqi girl.
But now, Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt said he's glad the photo was shown on national television and the Internet, because it captures a side of the war people don't often see.
In the picture, Gebhardt cradles the girl as they both nap in the hallway of a hospital at Balad Air Base, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The girl had been shot in the head by insurgents, Gebhardt said, in an attack that killed her mother, father and other family members.
Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, said he is not doing anything in the photo that other military personnel wouldn't do.
"All the people over there would do the same thing," said Gebhardt, 48, a military veteran who has served at bases around the country. "It's different and unexpected that it would be me in the photograph. It's just what we do."
Gebhardt doesn't know the girl's name or age, or what has become of her, except that she was eventually released to a surviving family member after he returned to McConnell.
He said he isn't sure when a nurse took the photo because he had been comforting the girl for several days after she had undergone many operations. He knows only that it was taken in late September, near the end of his tour, which began in May.
Gebhardt, who had been assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Medical Group in the Balad hospital, said he saw the child acting restless in her crib and decided she needed some comforting, so he picked her up.
He and his wife, Mindy, have an adult son and daughter. He said holding the child made him remember holding his own children and how fortunate he had been.
Gebhardt said he didn't think much of the photo when the nurse gave it to him. He joked to his wife that he had a new girlfriend.
But after it was published in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and circulated on the Internet, Gebhardt received hundreds of e-mails calling him "hero" and "angel." He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC News radio. The newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., which is near his hometown of Jordan, N.Y., wrote about him.
Gebhardt at first avoided interviews but said he came to realize that the photo tells a story about Americans in Iraq that doesn't often get told.
"I saw so many acts of remarkable compassion," Gebhardt said. "You see nurses on the ward and technicians, when somebody's injured they'll give blood, carry the blood right back and put it in the person. It's right out of 'M*A*S*H.' They're going well out of their way to provide comfort and care."
"The story needs to be told, but I'm not the story," he said. "It's all the soldiers, airmen, Marines, Navy people. It's all the people.
"There's people over there right now doing the same thing. It just happens to be me in the picture."
Ellie
Tender hug in Iraq gets America's attention
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. -- An airman stationed at McConnell Air Force Base said he was initially embarrassed by national attention he received from a picture showing him cradling an injured, sleeping Iraqi girl.
But now, Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt said he's glad the photo was shown on national television and the Internet, because it captures a side of the war people don't often see.
In the picture, Gebhardt cradles the girl as they both nap in the hallway of a hospital at Balad Air Base, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The girl had been shot in the head by insurgents, Gebhardt said, in an attack that killed her mother, father and other family members.
Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, said he is not doing anything in the photo that other military personnel wouldn't do.
"All the people over there would do the same thing," said Gebhardt, 48, a military veteran who has served at bases around the country. "It's different and unexpected that it would be me in the photograph. It's just what we do."
Gebhardt doesn't know the girl's name or age, or what has become of her, except that she was eventually released to a surviving family member after he returned to McConnell.
He said he isn't sure when a nurse took the photo because he had been comforting the girl for several days after she had undergone many operations. He knows only that it was taken in late September, near the end of his tour, which began in May.
Gebhardt, who had been assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Medical Group in the Balad hospital, said he saw the child acting restless in her crib and decided she needed some comforting, so he picked her up.
He and his wife, Mindy, have an adult son and daughter. He said holding the child made him remember holding his own children and how fortunate he had been.
Gebhardt said he didn't think much of the photo when the nurse gave it to him. He joked to his wife that he had a new girlfriend.
But after it was published in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and circulated on the Internet, Gebhardt received hundreds of e-mails calling him "hero" and "angel." He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC News radio. The newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., which is near his hometown of Jordan, N.Y., wrote about him.
Gebhardt at first avoided interviews but said he came to realize that the photo tells a story about Americans in Iraq that doesn't often get told.
"I saw so many acts of remarkable compassion," Gebhardt said. "You see nurses on the ward and technicians, when somebody's injured they'll give blood, carry the blood right back and put it in the person. It's right out of 'M*A*S*H.' They're going well out of their way to provide comfort and care."
"The story needs to be told, but I'm not the story," he said. "It's all the soldiers, airmen, Marines, Navy people. It's all the people.
"There's people over there right now doing the same thing. It just happens to be me in the picture."
Ellie