Jonny

For the next ten months, my brother in law is going to be in Iraq, serving as a combat medic for the 772nd Military Police Company. He's 20 years old and has worked for a few years as an EMT at Fallon Ambulance in Boston, MA.

This Christmas was our chance to was the last pre deployment visit home he had before shipping out. Jonny is a good kid and a good brother in law. He got me an ice luge at my wedding, so we're close. In all seriousness though, Jonny is being shipped to one of the worst and most inhospitable places in the world in order to practice emergency medicine on our troops under the worst conditions.

A few times in my career I've been scared for my life, a roof would come down on top of us or a car would almost hit the truck. But for the most part when I put on my uniform it was always with complete conviction that in 24 hours it would come off again and I would be home. I've worked in some less than pleasant locales where violence was a real problem but never a warzone.

The next ten months will undoubtably be very trying for Jonny. He's worked hard to master all of the training thrown at him in boot camp and combat medic school. He has some experience in trauma from his job in Boston. He's leaving behind his girlfriend, a medic assigned to another company that he met durring his training. She has dreams of becoming a nurse after her enlistment is up. Jonny wants to work as a firefighter like his grandfather. The military will greatly increase his chances of hire at just about any department. His EMS experience won't hurt either.

It hit me while we were sitting around the dinner table on Christmas that Jonny was leaving. My in laws are devout born again Christians and they pray....a lot. But their prayers are always toward something, not the hollow words I knew from my Catholic upbrining. Hearing the prayers of Jonny and my father in law really hit home the fact that he is going to be leaving and is going to be placed in real danger. There were some tears, okay more than some and more than a lot because we love him and we're going to be very worried about him.

We ended up watching Stepbrothers, quite possibly one of the funniest but stupidest movies every made. And for those two hours, Jonny wasn't going to Iraq. He was laughing, joking and enjoying himself, like the burden of the coming months wasn't there.

When I met my wife we ended up marrying fairly quickly. The wedding was a beautiful one but it was one that was under the gun of Jonny's leaving. A few times the topic of Jonny's recruiter, a Sergeant from the MA National Guard, being invited brought my wife to anger. Both of us are dead set against the war. I don't think we should be in Iraq for a myriad of geo political, socio economic and legal reasons. But that doesn't change the fact that someone we love is going over there. I can be against the war all I want its still going to happen. And Jonny is still going to be there.

I don't want to pretend that our family is the only one going through the nervous experience of a loved one going into a combat zone. Thousands of families across America get to experience this with us. They have their own loved ones in ther service doing their thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfournately that thought just makes it worse for me. How many people are feeling the pain of the unknown in regards to their loved ones? And how many more will have to feel that pain?

This isn't a political blog and it never will be. My views are so liberal that I don't think a party would ever accept me, my wife tells me I'm a step above an anarchist but lets be honest, they really have too many rules. I don't believe in the war that we are in right now and I never will but I know that people we love are "over there" and risking their lives for something they believe in. Jonny is going to be one of the ones taking care of them, providing life saving care for them should something happen. I may not support the war but I support them.

While I'm not religious I will have Jonny and our friend JD, an MP he serves with on my mind constantly for the next ten months. Both are young men who for their own reasons decided that the army was the correct path for them. My thoughts will be with them, my positive energy stored and sent for them. I ask that any of you that read this blog keep them in mind and if you pray, pray for them and all of our brothers and sisters, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and friends in uniform. Like me, you can be dead set against the war, but know that the people over there are all someone's loved ones and deserve the hope that we can hold for them.

At the end of my father in law's two page prayer for Jonny, he said simply "Jonny, Godspeed."

Godspeed Jonny, come home safe.