Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Today, my dad told me we would be going running. There isn't much new to that. We go running about weekly. But today, he told me to get my Goruck backpack. He left my room and came back with two bricks wrapped in packing foam and duct tape-- weights. This was my first time running with weights, and I was excited. But then my dad wrote something on each of the bricks in Sharpie. On one he wrote MSG G. GORDON, and on the other SFC R. SHUGHART. He put them in my backpack and took me running on our usual path, to a local field that was about a quarter mile around. As we ran, he told me this story. 

Twenty-two years ago, a corrupt warlord took control of Somalia, which was undergoing a famine. The rest of the world, primarily the UN, sent food and aid to Somalia, but the warlord was hanging none of that. Because evil exists in this world, and evil doesn't just give up. The warlord kept most of the food to himself, and wouldn't distribute it to those who needed it. The UN decided to take matters into its own hands. They set up distribution stations in Somalia, which had to have military protection (provided by the United States).

Not just simple military protection was dispatched, though. There were also highly trained special ops units, such as the 10th Mountain Division. They were there to take military targets. On October 4, 1993, a plan was devised to capture two lieutenants of the warlord, but the plan working would be too easy, right? A helicopter was shot down, and ground units came to secure the site. But then, a second helicopter was also shot down. 

Two snipers, upon hearing that there were no ground units available at the time to secure the crash site, volunteered to secure it themselves, despite being well aware of the amount of enemy militias quickly closing in on the site. After being denied twice, their request was finally approved. The first attempt had to be aborted, but finally the two snipers were deposited 100 meters south of the crash site. Armed with only their precision rifles and pistols, they fought their way to the crash site and set up a perimeter around the four critically wounded crew members while putting themselves in a vulnerable position. They protected the survivor-- the pilot-- until they were fatally wounded, saving the pilot's life. Their names were Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart.

Master Sergeant Gordon and Sergeant First Class Shughart were posthumously honored, being awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions. 

And so today we run. But we run in a place where your biggest trouble is getting your shoes wet from the sprinklers, not from the blood. We run in a place where we have a bottle of clean water in easy access. We run on a beautiful day, perfectly safe, with the promise of a warm shower at home. We have no idea of how they had it. It's beyond our comprehension.

But today we run. We run to honor these people who gave their lives and went above and beyond the call of duty. But the celebration is not just today. It's every day. It's when we think, this house, this food, this safety, is all something I have because of people like them.  

Because people like them went above and beyond the call of duty. 

It is so hard. It is hard to do this in normal life. It's almost impossible to do it in the military. But people do it anyway. They push themselves when they don't have to to save or improve the lives of others.

You can do it too.