From someone that knew Dan and has posted here before.
Re: Hello
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I wanted to share this story just because it's pretty powerful and I figure there's no better place to share it than here on a christian website.
Dan wasn't the guy who would come up to you and say, "Have you heard about Jesus Christ"? and then proceed to witness to you and tell you why you're going to hell if you don't accept him into your heart. Dan was the guy who witnessed to people through living a great life and giving all glory to God. He led by example in all aspects of his life. And he was the kind of guy who you wanted to listen to and emulate and work hard for. It is amazing how many guys he brought to God just by being who he was and living a good christian life. I think he had just about every Marine in his unit going to church on Sundays, not because he told them to but because they saw that that was the best thing for them. There is a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. Well that isn't true. There are a ton of atheists in the military, so it is no easy task to get a bunch of stubborn jarheads to believe that there is a God when they are seeing the things they are seeing and constantly in danger of being killed.
When we were in Ramadi in 2005 we had an Iraqi interpreter named Ayham attached to our unit. He would never miss an opportunity to tell you his name meant "brave". And he really was very brave for what he did. Dan and Ayham built up a pretty strong and trusting relationship. I don't know if any of you have any experience with it but it takes a lot to build up trust with the INF (Iraqi National Force) guys because a lot of them joined just to infiltrate our Ops. We had that happen before so it was especially hard to trust them. But Dan formed a bond with this guy. They talked a lot about religion. Dan about Christianity and Ayham about Islam. They wouldn't debate, they just talked. Dan had a bible and he would read from it to him and Ayham would read from the Koran. Now to make a long story very short, one morning after a particularly bloody firefight, Ayham told us he would like to say something. He then told us that he had become a Christian was going to convert his entire family as well thanks to Mr. Gregory (that was Dan's last name). If you don't know how brave it is for a Muslim to profess something like that, well it's more brave than anything any of us have ever done. After that I really saw a change in Ayham. He went from being a kind of solemn and unhappy guy to being full of life. Even when times were tough, which was almost every day. He said it was the best thing he ever did in his life. From what I know about Dan, I wouldn't be surprised if there were others that he was able to convert as well.
Most of you probably never knew that Dan was anything other than a lonely, crippled, and angry man. I've read through the posts he made here his last few days and it didn't even sound like the Dan I knew and loved. Sadly if I hadn't known him and read these things I would have thought, what is this guy's problem? It was obvious he needed a friend more than anything and I just wish I would have known. I wish I could have visited him and let him know that somebody was there and actually cared about him. He literally had nobody besides you guys there at the end. From what I understand, his aunt & uncle were there at the house but he wouldn't talk to them. So I guess you guys were it. And you did all you could. I think he knew a long time ago it was going to come to what it came to.
All he cared about was his family and he knew (or thought he knew) that he was never going to get his wife and kids back, and he knew he was never going to get his Marines back. He knew he was never going to be able to walk and talk and function like a normal human being. I can't say that I would have handled it any different than he ultimately did. Dan loved to coach his kids' teams and run and workout. He loved to spend time with his wife. They had been together since his junior year and her sophomore year in high school. 22 years. I seriously have never met two people who loved each other more. Most Marines don't smile all the time like he did, but he loved his life. He loved being a dad and a husband. And he would tell you in a heartbeat that all the good in his life was because of God. Not to say that his life was perfect. He has some really bad things happen in his short life, but he never let things get him down. He knew that God was going to take care of him.
