>There are times when commentary only interferes with the message. This is one of those times.
>
> THE WARRIOR’S CODE OF HONOR
>
>  As a combat veteran wounded in one of America’s wars, I offer to speak for
> those who cannot. Were the mouths of my fallen front-line friends not
> stopped with dust, they would testify that life revolves around honor.
> In war, it is understood that you give your word of honor to do your duty –
> that is – stand and fight instead of running away and deserting your
> friends.
> When you keep your word despite desperately desiring to flee the screaming
> hell all around, you earn honor.
>
> Earning honor under fire changes who you are.
>             The blast furnace of battle burns away impurities encrusting
> your soul.
>             The white-hot forge of combat hammers you into a hardened,
> purified warrior willing to die    rather than break your word to friends –
> your honor.
>
>  Combat is scary but exciting.
>             You never feel so alive as when being shot at without result
>             You never feel so triumphant as when shooting back – with
> result.
>             You never feel love so pure as that burned into your heart by
> friends willing to die to keep     their word to you.
>             And they do.
>
> The biggest sadness of your life is to see friends falling.
> The biggest surprise of your life is to survive the war.
> Although still alive on the outside, you are dead inside – shot thru the
> heart with nonsensical guilt for living while friends died.
> The biggest lie of your life torments you that you could have done something
> more, different, to save them.
> Their faces are the tombstones in your weeping eyes, their souls shine the
> true camaraderie you search for the rest of your life but never find.
>
> You live a different world now. You always will.
>             Your world is about waking up night after night silently
> screaming, back in battle.
>             Your world is about your best friend bleeding to death in your
> arms, howling in pain for you to kill him.
>             Your world is about shooting so many enemies the gun turns red
> and jams, letting the enemy grab you.
>             Your world is about struggling hand-to-hand for one more breath
> of life.
>
> You never speak of your world.
> Those who have seen combat do not talk about it.
> Those who talk about it have not seen combat.
>
> You come home but a grim ghost of he who so lightheartedly went off to war.
> But home no longer exists
> That world shattered like a mirror the first time you were shot at.
> The splintering glass of everything you knew fell at your feet, revealing
> what was standing behind it – grinning death – and you are face to face,
> nose to nose with it!
> The shock was so great that the boy you were died of fright.
> He was replaced by a stranger who slipped into your body, a MAN from the
> Warrior’s World.
> In that savage place, you give your word of honor to dance with death
> instead of run away from it.
> This suicidal waltz is known as: “doing your duty.”
>
> You did your duty, survived the dance, and returned home. But not all of you
> came back to the civilian world.
> Your heart and mind are still in the Warrior’s World, far beyond the Sun.
> They will always be in the Warrior’s World. They will never leave, they are
> buried there.
> In that hallowed home of honor, life is about keeping your word.
>
> People in the civilian world, however, have no idea that life is about
> keeping your word.
> They think life is about ballgames, backyards, barbecues, babies and
> business.
> The distance between the two worlds is as far as Mars from Earth.
> This is why, when you come home, you fell like an outsider, a visitor from
> another planet.
> You are.
>
> Friends try to bridge the gaping gap.
> It is useless. They may as well look up at the sky and try to talk to a
> Martian as talk to you. Words fall like bricks between you.
> Serving with Warriors who died proving their word has made prewar friends
> seem too un-tested to be trusted – thus they are now mere acquaintances.
> The hard truth is that earning honor under fire makes you a stranger in your
> own home town, an alien visitor from a different world, alone in a crowd.
>
> The only time you are not alone is when with another combat veteran.
>             Only he understands that keeping your word, your honor, whilst
> standing face to face with death gives meaning and purpose to life.
>             Only he understands that your terrifying – but thrilling – dance
> with death has made your old world of backyards, barbecues and ballgames
> seem deadly dull.
>             Only he understands that your way of being due to combat damaged
> emotions is not the un-usual, but the usual, and you are OK.
>
> A common consequence of combat is adrenaline addiction.
> Many combat veterans – including this writer – feel that war was the high
> point of our lives, and emotionally, life has been downhill ever since.
> This is because we came home adrenaline junkies. We got that way doing our
> duty in combat situations such as:
>             crouching in a foxhole waiting for attacking enemy soldiers to
> get close enough for you to start shooting;
>             hugging the ground, waiting for the signal to leap up and attack
> the enemy;
>             sneaking along on a combat patrol out in no man’s land, seeking
> a gunfight;
>             suddenly realizing that you are walking in the middle of a mine
> field.
>
> Circumstances like these skyrocket your feelings of aliveness far, far above
> and beyond anything you experienced in civilian life:
>             never have you felt so terrified – yet so thrilled;
>             never have you seen sky so blue, grass so green, breathed air so
> sweet, etc.; because dancing with death makes you feel stratospheric – nay –
> intergalactic aliveness.
>
> Then you come home, where the addictive, euphoric rush of
> aliveness/adrenaline hardly ever happens – naturally, that is.
> Then what often occurs? “Quick, pass me the motorcycle” (and /or fast car,
> drag race, speedboat, airplane, parachute, big game hunt, extreme sport,
> fist fight, gun fight, etc.)
>
>
> Another reason Warriors may find the rush of adrenaline attractive is
> because it lets them feel something rather than nothing. The dirty little
> secret no one talks about is that many combat veterans come home unable to
> feel their feelings. It works like this.
>             In battle, it is understood that you give your word of honor to
> not let your fear stop you from doing your duty. To keep your word, you must
> numb up/shut down your fear.
>             But the numb-up/shut-down mechanism does not work like a tight,
> narrow rifle shot; it works like a broad, spreading shot gun blast. Thus
> when you numb up your fear, you numb up virtually all your other feelings as
> well.
>             The more combat, the more fear you must “not feel.” You may
> become so numbed up/shut down inside that you cannot feel much of anything.
> You become what is know as “battle-hardened,” meaning that you can feel hard
> feelings like hate and anger, but not soft, tender feelings (which is bad
> news for loved ones).
>             The reason that the rush of adrenaline, alcohol, drugs,
> dangerous life style, etc. is so attractive is because you get to feel
> something, which is a step up from the awful deadness of feeling nothing.
>
>
> Although you walk thru life alone, you are not lonely.
> You have a constant companion from combat – Death.
> It stands close behind, a little to the left.
> Death whispers in your ear; “Nothing matters outside my touch, and I have
> not touched you…YET!”
> Death never leaves you – it is your best friend, your most trusted advisor,
> your wisest teacher.
> Death teaches you that every day above ground is a fine day.
> Death teaches you to feel fortunate on good days, and bad days…well, they do
> not exist.
> Death teaches you that merely seeing one more sunrise is enough to fill your
> cup of life to the
> brim – pressed down and running over!
> Death teaches you that you can postpone its touch by earning serenity.
>
> Serenity is earned by a lot of prayer and acceptance.
> Acceptance is taking one step out of denial and accepting/allowing your
> repressed, painful combat memories to be re-lived/suffered thru/shared with
> other combat vets – and thus de-fused.
> Each time you accomplish this dreaded act of courage/desperation:
>             the pain gets less;
>             more tormenting combat demons hiding in the darkness of your gut
> are thrown out into the
>             healing sunlight of awareness, thereby disappearing them;
>             the less bedeviling combat demons, the more serenity earned.
>
> Serenity is, regretfully, rather an indistinct quality, but it manifests as
> an immense feeling of fulfillment/satisfaction:
>             from having proven your honor under fire;
>             from having demonstrated to be a fact that you did your duty no
> matter what;
>             and from being grateful to Higher Power/your Creator for sparing
> you.
> It is an iron law of nature that such serenity lengthens life span to the
> max.
>
> Down thru the dusty centuries it has always been thus.
> It always will be, for what is seared into a man’s soul who stands face to
> face with death never changes.
>
>
> WRITER’S  NOTE (1)
>
>  This work attempts to describe the world as seen thru the eyes of a combat
> veteran. It is a world virtually unknown to the public because few veterans
> can talk about it.
>             This is unfortunate since people who are trying to understand,
> and make meaningful contact with combat veterans, are kept in the dark.
>             How do you establish a rapport with a combat veteran? It is very
> simple. Demonstrate to him out in the open in front of God and everybody
> that you too have a Code of Honor – that is, you also keep your work – no
> matter what!
>
> Do it and you will forge a bond between you.
> Do it not and you will not.
> End of story. Case closed.
>
> I offer these poor, inadequate words – bought not taught – in the hope that
> they may shed some small light on why combat veterans are like they are, and
> how they can fix it.
>
> It is my life desire that this tortured work, despite its many defects, may
> yet still provide some tiny sliver of understanding which may blossom into
> tolerance – nay, acceptance – of a Warrior’s perhaps unconventional way of
> being due to combat-damaged emotions from doing his duty under fire.
>
>                                      Signed, a Purple Heart Medal recipient
> who wishes to remain anonymous.
>
>
> Dedicated to absent friends in unmarked graves.
>
> Respectfully written and submitted by;
> Pete Oakander [poakander@msn.com]
> Commander of Chief Joseph Chapter 509 of the Military Order of the Purple
> Heart – Boise, Idaho
> Charter Member of American Legion Post 39 – Middleton, Idaho
> Yours in Patriotism

Ok, a little silly. But then maybe you can tell me how Jesus would return?  Surely he will wait until after the elections! Especially since I heard he is rather liberal with his love for ALL.

http://www.arrowheadfilms.com/documentary/in-the-shadow-of-the-blade

This icon was most likely commissioned during the Crusades in the State of Syria or Palestine. I am always reminded of the fact that my role model, St.Francis of Assisi was first a warrior. He was very likely one of the first PTSD sufferers. The biographical movie, “Brother Sun Sister Moon,” the 1973, Zefferelli award winner, depicts the aftermath of war well in the first five minutes of the film.  Sacred events and lives are often preceded by trauma.

The sacred event is shown in God’s view, with a solid gold background of uncreated light. Jesus exists in the light of God. The icon shows no time or place and like the Gospel itself is for all people everywhere in all times. Humankind is depicted as a circular ball of dramatic tension. They are dancing in a mass of energy as our earth swirls in waves of violence and betrayals—just as we are now in the 21st Century! The feet are shown in arrested movement–all them caught in mid-stride–as they may if Jesus were to appear to us this Easter–or this day. Jesus robes billow out from his body as if he were running to meet His destiny. Judas Iscariot is reaching forward to kiss Jesus and betray Him to the authorities. The tension is accentuated by all facing forward except Judas. The absence of eye contact is considered the realm of the Devil.

Behind are all of the instruments of betrayal and destruction. The wooden cudgel used by the commoner. The fire-brand wood common to Romans and Jews. Metal tipped staff used by soldiers. The Labarum, a imperial insignia symbolizing the power of Rome. The spear, the weapon of occupying forces. The sentry speared Jesus! A battle ax used by Romans. And the regimental labarum topped with titles and ribbons of officers on missions.

The only person who is grounded in the world is Malchus, the high priest’s slave, who has feet knocked out from under him. (today’s unemployed). He is responding to the bleeding wound of his right ear and earlobe. As an unnamed disciple comforts Malchus, we see Simon Peter standing over them with his sword extended and ready to defend.

A secret teaching embedded in this icon was the belief that the three torches were symbolic of the Triune God. The common mans wooden cudgel was left outside the domination of the triune God, along with his free will, so men and women could decide to follow Jesus Christ and believe or be lost in the world of violence.  This icon was meant to be used during Lent as one would sit in front of it an examine where his/her soul has betrayed or gone astray from Gods Commandments.

Whom have we betrayed or furthered acts of violence?

Let this Easter be the announcement of a new world order–one without violence.

In the next 18 months we will be welcoming home a substantial number of men and women who have been in combat zones in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them for multiple tours of duty. They are entering a climate of anger and political travail.  The behavior of a large segment of our citizenry would not be considered Sunday school worthy. How is the meshing of minds going to play out in the midst of one of the most polarized  political climates since the days of Civil Rights?

How do we prepare? How do we show these sailors, soldiers and Marines that we as a nation are mature enough to not rangle them beyond tolerable limits?

If these presidential candidates are truly about Country first and submerging political gain, how will they show it?

When I worked on the Old Pueblo Trolley, we had many riders who were soldiers on liberty and between deployments. Some were a tad touchy, and not much interested in adolescent political theatrics.

Ironically, the door men at some of the local taverns were more  attuned and prepared than the rest of civil society.

I pray that we can find a level of equanimity and class amongst our leaders for fear that we will see a level of enmity reminiscent of the Vietnam War.

Jesus, any chance of coming too see us at your earliest convenience?

“In a San Diego, California neighborhood, debate is raging: The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to establish a residential treatment program for Veterans with PTSD and mild traumatic brain injuries. On its face, the idea doesn’t seem controversial. After all, given two wars in the past decade, the U.S. government is doing what it can to provide Vets with the best care possible. But that’s not how some San Diegans view the situation. They say the facility will be too close to a school. They say it’s “just the wrong place.” Without saying as much, this is an example where some in a community are simply not comfortable with what they view as damaged and potentially unstable Veterans being near a school. Of course, this attitude doesn’t take place in a vacuum, and it wasn’t formed recently. There is a reason people have such views of those who once protected them. If you’ve read the news lately, you may have seen one of several stories describing recent Veterans as “ticking time bombs” or as “dangerous” on account of post-traumatic stress. It’s a narrative that has persisted for decades, but a handful of recent high-profile incidents have resulted in headlines like these: