How to Save a Life

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Alexander Hernandez, 3, sneaks over from the crowd to grip the hand of his father, Master Sgt. Jose Hernandez of Orlando, as he stands in formation during a deployment ceremony for the Sentinel Detachment 3rd Battalion 265th Air Defense Artillery from Sarasota
STAFF PHOTOS / CHIP LITHERLAND

By way of Thomas Ricks:

On a dusty afternoon in a squalid U.S. Army base in eastern Baghdad, the world seemed to cave in on Spec. Joe Sanders. On daily patrols, soldiers around him were being killed and grievously wounded by improvised roadside bombs. The sweltering August heat and stink of Baghdad were oppressive. He was thousands of miles from home. And he had just learned that his wife — his lifeline to the sane, normal world — wanted a divorce.
Alone in his barracks room at Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah, Sanders, a soft-spoken young man with a pleasant demeanor, seized his M-4 carbine, put the barrel under his chin, squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the trigger. It was August, 2008. Sanders was 26 years old.

Today, he is fortunate enough to be 28. Find out what his buddy did to prevent him from making an irreparable mistake.

CJ, last March:

There is nothing in this world worthy of taking your life. Believe it or not, a failed relationship, a bad deployment experience, a failed job, delinquent bills, terrible leadership, the loss of a family member or friend – none of that is worth your life. I desperately urge you to take those issues in your life and become something bigger in spite of your problems. There are people who care about you deeply and want to help you through whatever you’re facing right now. We may not understand, but we care and want help you through it. Once you take your life, it can’t be taken back. It’s definite. It’s over.

If you don’t contact us for help, please go somewhere. Check out www.militaryonesource.com for people that can help. Go to your chain of command. Seek out a complete stranger. Go to a hospital or police department. Just do something besides trying to take your life. I don’t know you personally, but I’d like to.

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Wow. I don’t see how anyone can read that story and not be touched. Thank God that young soldier had a good friend who removed his firing pin.

What a good, and practical, friend. So many people in this situation will say “what can I do” and just give up and hope for the best. The moral is that it never hurts to be proactively protective. The worst that can happen is that you look like a fussbudget, the best is the incomparable feeling of saving a life.

What a great story! Thank GOD he had a friend like Albert Godding!

We should all make an effort to let these young Patriots know that we appreciate their sacrifices and efforts. Many of us are enduring hardships, but these are minor compared to losing a friend in combat or losing your family because you are deployed overseas.

Sometimes a smile, a thank you, or paying for a soldier’s lunch will make his day a little brighter. We owe them a debt that can’t be paid and witnessing the disrespect our President and his administration have for the flag, our freedoms and our traditions only adds to their sense of hopelessness. We as good citizens need to show our appreciation to those walking around in uniform.

Remember our misery here under the repressive Socialist Regime of Obamacratization isn’t nearly as bad as being deployed in the Middle East. In a few years Obama and his Marxism will be swept away as an embarrassment that resulted from an uninformed public, we will recover and do our best to insure that such an assault on Freedom never occurs again; but these young patriots are the ones who make it possible for America to withstand this attack on the very principles of the Constitution, they are the ones who make it possible for the United States to rebound from leadership that is incompetent and unpatriotic.

Yes, we are all expected to endure this enemy in the White House and sit through four years of Hell; but our young patriots not only endure the same shame of having elected this Malignant Narcissist who has been unleashed upon us from the bowels of Marxism, but they also go to war for this same Judas who sells us out not only for silver pieces but also for the very freedom that elected him.

Eventually, the threads of those uniforms will provide the strength that holds this country together under this Marxist onslaught for the next three years, be nice to those in uniform! Make them feel at home in America!

What a great friend to have watching out for him. He was not reluctant to get involved.