Digging In The Sandbox

Once again I return to dig through the Sandbox. Once again I find my heart aching. Once again I find myself humbled by the braveness and strength of the soldiers. Every time I return to the Sandbox and read the soldiers’ posts I find myself touched that the soldiers would share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with us ordinary civilians.

“Suspect’s Creed”
The first post I came to was by The Usual Suspect. The first post I read by this soldier was about his insatiable love for rocking out to his hardcore metal music and how he uses it to get through the days in hell. His newest post, Suspect’s Creed, was also an excellent post that I believe allowed him to vent his angers and frustrations to a world that cares. I think that this is his way to relate to the rest of the world and his way of getting through the hell he is going through. I love his writings and the way he is so confident that he will not take shit from anyone and that he will never be a “yes man.” This was definitely another interesting post by a very interesting soldier.

“From Hero to Zero”
This was a sad post and a very cold dose of reality. As I read this I thought about how much crap soldiers take when they are sent away, only to come home and find their wives cheating on them, to be spit at, and to be held in disdain for doing their job and protecting their country. What kind of a world do we live in if the very people who protect and fight for us are scorned? This man talked about his surprise at finding one of his friends had murdered and was going to be in jail for the rest of his life. His points about going from being a hero fighting in Iraq for our country, only to come home and be treated as dirt were very sobering and upsetting indeed.

“The Faces”
I usually do not get choked up and teary eyed at many things, but this post made my eyes well up and gave me the goose bumps. This woman is an RN in the army and was caught off guard when she was walking through the ICU section of the hospital. She saw not only a wife of a severely wounded soldier, but also her two beautiful children. They sat there day after day hoping that this wounded soldier would wake up from his drug induced coma and come back to their world. Not only did this RN take the time to stop and chat with the soldier’s wife and children, she also took it upon herself to give them a portable DVD player to help take their minds off of the present. This nurse’s small kindness gave hope to this mother and her two children and made their days a little bit easier to muddle through. When this RN described the scene of when the soldier woke up and his wife began crying, it seriously gave me the chills. The kindness of this RN was amazing and she has definitely earned her place as an angel.

.