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Posted by on May 26, 2014 in Blog | 1 comment

We Must All Be Medics

 

James-E_-Callahan

Army Medic James E. Callahan

 

“Life is for the living, death is for the dead.”

 

Of war’s veritable congregation of horrors, serving as a battle medic must be the most gruesome.

Medics fight constantly on the front lines of life and death.  Duty calls them to places where the shooting never stops.  They bear witness to unimaginable horrors.  They treat injuries no living being should ever be forced to endure.  Yet they must somehow tune out these ceaseless bombardments of shock and revulsion because lives depend on maintaining a beacon of sanity amid an encirclement of chaos.  Indeed, their medical ability and physical stamina to perform such tasks mean the difference for many between making a trip home resting on an airplane or laying inside a flag-draped casket.

army-medic

 

On this Memorial Day, we traditionally remember and honor our veterans who are no longer living.  Most of us never knew any of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.  Their names are etched into tombstones now gathering moss, creeping towards what will someday be complete anonymity.  As the poet and social activist Langston Hughes once wrote, “Life is for the living, death is for the dead.”

Accordingly, we must vow to celebrate not only those who didn’t make it back home.  We must also rejoice in those who did – in many cases thanks to the extraordinary men and women with a shroud of thin cotton tied across their faces, concealing their identities, who remain unknown.

 

female-medic

 

We’ve become incredibly proficient at maiming and killing each other.  The instruments of war have become increasingly lethal.  Now we can slaughter each other more quickly and from greater distances than ever before.  We’re all potential targets.  No one anywhere is truly safe.

Killing machines may have become more efficient, but the procedures used to try and undo the carnage remain constant.  A bullet remains a bullet.  A blast remains a blast.  The blood from a wound continues to stain in red.

Sadly, advancements in peace have not kept up with advancements in the business and technology of war.  There’s something brutally sinister in that fact.  People and armies and nations are really good at inflicting pain but remain largely impotent at stopping or even treating it.

VIETNAM WAR MEDIC CALLAHAN

Army Medic James E. Callahan

 

Honestly, I don’t think I have what it takes to be a medic.  Few can do a job that requires such bravery and sacrifice.  I think most of us would fall short of what’s required to perform exceptional tasks under intense pressure.

That doesn’t make us bad people.  It just makes those who manage to serve so very, very good people, deserving of praise and our gratitude.

Still, we can do something.  We can all be medics on a different battlefield.

We can provide comfort and compassion when they return.  We can try and achieve greater degrees of understanding of what they endured.  We can be caretakers of those who bear the physical and emotional scars from the trauma of war.

The medic’s job is done once those they treat to return home — some living and some not.  And that’s when our job begins.

For those who are dead, we must honor their memories on this day.  Fly a flag.  Attend a parade.  Donate to a worthy veterans organization.  Visit a cemetery and place flowers upon the grave of someone who served and unwittingly sacrificed.

For those who are living, their care must continue and it must be so indefinitely.  Given all the blasted bodies and wounded souls from the wars this nation has fought, the human need is great.

Back at home, we must all be medics.

Notes:  Read more about James E. Callahan here at HISTORY BY ZIM

Photo Credit:  The two photos of James E. Callahan were taken by AP photographer Henri Huet in a battle 50 miles north of Saigon (Vietnam), in 1967.

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