A Little (More) Knowledge Can Be...Interesting

     In the time between going from "More-Than-Friends" to "I Do," my [now] husband completed three combat deployments to Afghanistan and an additional disaster relief assignment with me in the role of "the girl back home." Between news coverage, e-mails, and Skype dates (thank you, by the way, to whoever invented Skype...you are a God-send to military families everywhere!) I felt I had a pretty comprehensive grasp of the dangers my guy could potentially be going through and was sure I was strong enough to hear any stories of battle scenarios which might come up in the future. I think the appropriate saying in a situation like this would be something akin to "Pride goeth before the fall."

    Flash-forward thirteen months and my husband - an HH-60G Pavehawk helicopter rescue pilot - had just returned from a four-and-a-half-month deployment, the first for us to experience as a married couple. Ironically, the timing of his squadron's return coincided almost exactly with the premier of a six-part series on the National Geographic channel called "Inside Combat Rescue," an inside-look at the goings on of rescue squadrons on deployment at Kandahar Air Base in southern Afghanistan. The show specifically focuses on the "PJ's" (Pararescue Jumpers), but the footage also captures a great deal of the flight crews as well as general day-to-day deployment life for the men/women in the rescue community. The night we settled down on the couch to watch the first episode, I was still under the impression I understood what my husband goes through during his combat deployments and that I could stomach anything the show could possibly reveal.

    I saw my first amputation that night. It was neither a cleverly-designed stage makeup with CG gore, nor the type of neatly-contained image from an operating room one might see in an anatomy class. It was a soldier, the medic of an army platoon, who happened to be riding a motorcycle and had the disastrous misfortune of driving over a mine. I also witnessed the frustration of the men when, after an alert came in reporting two seriously-wounded children, the crews were moments later informed the mission was scrubbed because the injuries had not been the fault of coalition forces and therefore fell to the responsibility of the ANA (Afghan National Army) to respond to; it was later revealed help came too late and one of the children died from their injuries.

    These images, combined with my husband's explanations and comments of familiarity with the situations on the screen in front of me, knocked my pre-conceptions of understanding clear out of the park. More than once throughout the course of the hour-long episode I felt myself going pale and my grip tightening vise-like on my husband's hand. However, surprisingly, at the end of the show, my primary emotion wasn't fear or disgust; it was unbelievable respect. The fact people like my husband can go through such experiences - not just once, but multiple times, and willingly to boot - and then come home and not only step back into "normal life" but do so as a loving, humorous, kind individuals is completely beyond me.     

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If anyone is interested in watching National Geographic's "Inside Combat Rescue," the episodes air Monday evenings at 10:00 PM EST. Information on the show may be found at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-combat-rescue/ Please be advised the show is very graphic and may not be appropriate for younger viewers or those with weak stomachs.