How A Christian Leader Deals With Suffering

[Bruce S]

At Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC recently the sergeant Major of the Army, Jack Tilley, was with a group of people visiting the wounded soldiers. He saw a Special Forces soldier who had lost his right hand and suffered severe wounds of his face and side of his body.
The SMA wanted to honor him and show him respect without offending, but what can you say or do in such a situation that will encourage and uplift? How do you shake the right hand of a soldier who has none? He decided to act as though the hand was not missing and gripped the soldier's wrist while speaking words of comfort and encouragement to him.

But there was another man in that group of visitors who had even brought his wife with him to visit the wounded who knew exactly what to do. This man reverently took the soldiers stump of a hand in both of! his hands, bowed at the bedside and prayed for him. When he finished the prayer he stood up, bent over the soldier and kissed him on the head and told him that he loved him.

What a powerful expression of love for one of our wounded heroes! What kind
of a man would kneel in such humility and submission? It was the wounded
man's Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush; a true leader.

This story was told by the SMA at a Soldiers Breakfast held at Red Arsenal, AL, and recorded by Chaplain James Henderson, stationed there.

My respect for the man grows daily.

 

[Reformationist]

My respect for the man grows daily.

Thanks for sharing that Bruce. I agree. Bush is doing an admirable job of being a Christian and a world leader in an office that has, prior to his administration, had too little of a Christian influence.

God bless,
Don

 

[Blindfaith]

I respect him more than any other President to date, in which I could vote.

Thanks for posting this.

 

[SUNSTONE]

I am glad this letter recieved the praise it deserves. Some people bashed it in the news forum section. Thank God, Christians can come in here in peace from the outside world.
Not that I hate the outside would forums, I just like a break.

 

[kimber1]

I thought that was awesome too! I admit until he was elected I paid very little attention to politics but I think he has done an amazing job and the fact that he readily admits his faith is such a blessing!!

 

[Matthew Hobbs]

According to MSG Richard Puckett of the Sergeant Major of the Army's (SMA) office, the gist of the story is true, but the detail about the President's praying with a wounded soldier is an embellishment:

For the past several months the Sergeant Major of the Army has been speaking to groups about his visits to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals to see soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq. The story involves the SMA and a visit by the President of the United States. The SMA and the President have never visited soldiers at the hospital together. The SMA's story of President Bush's visit to one particular soldier was relayed to him by one of the Special Forces soldiers in the hospital that day.

On one visit he spoke to a young special forces soldier who lost his hand in an accident involving a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. As he was leaving, the soldier stuck his limb to the SMA and SMA Tilley gingerly shook the bandages to not injure him further. He presented him a coin and said "God Bless You."

The same soldier was visited several days later by the President, who was awarding medals to many of the wounded soldiers. The soldier stuck his limb up to the President as he was leaving, and President Bush cupped his limb with both hands and said "God Bless You." He then knelt down and kissed him on the forehead.

The story that is spreading around the internet is a well-woven embellishment of the SMA's story.

MSG Richard Puckett
Public Affairs Advisor to the Sergeant Major of the Army
Office of the Sergeant Major of the Army

 

[ZiSunka]

Ah! That's sweet.

It's also a story first told during the Civil War, not Gulf War Part 2. The original story says that it was Lincoln who bowed down to take the wounded man's stump firmly in both hands, then knelt to pray an eloquent prayer about how Christ could continue to use the man in His service by giving him spiritual hands that would reach into hearts that must remain untouched by men who had never known pain or loss. The wounded soldier went on to be a pastor at the National Soldiers's Home in Dayton, Ohio, pastoring men who were so badly wounded that they couldn't even go home to live with their families.

It's on record at the VA hospital on Gettysburg Avenue in Dayton, which is what the soldiers' home is called now.

 

[SPARTICLE]

After the President left the room, the young special forces soldier who lost his right hand was pretty excited; he had personally met the Commander-in-Chief, and his attending nurse had told him about a VA program where he might get a prosthetic to replace his lost hand. It wasn't the same as his lost limb, but the soldier was no quitter.

The doctor came in and the soldier said to him, "The nurse was telling me that there's a VA program where I can get a prosthetic to replace my lost hand."

The doctor ansewred, "that was a great program, it even included rehabilitation training to teach you how to use the prosthetic, to eat, to bathe, etc., counseling to help you get over some grief, and small disability benefits to help you along until you can find employment."

"Where do I sign up?" asked the young soldier. The doctor frowned and answered the young soldier, "the man who just left? He cut funding by $65 billion dollars. We don't offer it anymore."

The devil is in the details...and that is the rest of the story.