TechnoChitlins

Miracles

Sgt. Mom has an interesting post over at Sgt. Stryker- bq. John was older than the other crewmen, an interestingly grizzled man in his late thirties. We knew each other to talk to casually, mostly because of being in the dining hall at the same time most days. And when the entire military detachment numbers only a hundred; well, everyone gets to know newcomers fairly rapidly. “What kind of miracle? A vision of angels, or Jesus or the Virgin?” “Not a person, exactly, “said John “A bright light and a voice. It was in Vietnam.” “Umm, “ I murmered encouragingly. Come to think on it, he was the right age to have been there. It seemed like I spent most of my first enlistment at social gatherings, listening to the occasional older guy get very, very drunk and start to talk about Vietnam. bq. “A Huey, “John was saying, “Evacuating troops from the bush under fire. Pretty intense fire, actually, and the bird took some hits and started to spin.” He looked down and the tabletop, relating in a flat voice, how he fought to bring the Huey under control again, the stuff cracking and men shouting all around him, the sky and green jungle spinning around. Suddenly, he said, there was a bright white light and a calm voice saying “John, come this way.” and he obeyed, he dragged to controls to fly in the direction of the voice and the light. The spinning stopped, the Huey steadied, albeit sluggishly… and they were safe. “Makes me nervous, being the object of a miracle,” He said, “ As if I were being saved for something special, but never knowing what it would be.” “People see things, under stress, “ I said, “Subconsciously, you knew what you needed to do. You did it automatically, without thinking.” John hitched his shoulders together, and looked at the table again.. “But that was just part of it. When we landed, and we counted off everyone… there were too many! We should not have been able to get off the ground with that many men crammed in. It should have been impossible.” My turn to shrug “Aerodynamically, they say it’s impossible for bumblebees to fly, but they do. And… “ I had a thought, “Perhaps it was one of the other guys who’s the focus for a miracle, who was supposed to be rescued… perhaps he is the one who was saved for a purpose, and you were just the instrument. Things happen, that you’ll never really know why.” “That’s for sure.” John brightened a little. I wondered if this was the first time he had considered that possibility. “I do know one thing,” I said, “They’ll fix your transport before they’ll ever fix our damned truck.” Miracles do happen. That's the only reason I've lived as long as I have. RTWT, of course. Posted by maestro at October 20, 2003 05:20 PM | TrackBack