Friday, June 15, 2007

The Sun Also Sets...



Now all has been heard;
Here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
For this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:13


Friends…

There is a mystery to all things of life; of things meaningful and meaningless.

Doesn’t the sun look grand when it rises, just so that it can go down again? Does not a great victory include a great cost?

Our mission to Kajaki brought us further north into the Helmand Province than we had ever been before; almost the whole way to the Kajaki Reservoir. Not for the first time, we came because the people of the surrounding villages lived in submission to the Taliban and they lived in fear.

From its first moments, the great success of our mission was marred by the great loss of seven brave souls…taken down by the enemy after they safely delivered a company of men to the battlefield. As the night wore on it was clear that their sacrifice would not be in vain.

The enemy would not be victorious; by the time the sun rose, there was new hope that we had broken the enemy in Kajaki. We secured what we had and within the morning there was no fighting.

Only time will tell if our presence will free those under the Taliban’s grip permanently from their prison of fear and mistrust. However for those days that we were there, the people had the cloak of oppression lifted from their neck.

Time is a harsh but true judge of our hopes and in its mirror our actions will eventually reflect their true meaning.

Will time show us to be strong or afraid?

Will time prove we chose to pursue God and the truth, or our momentary whims?

The course of life can paint a picture of a hero; how did he handle difficult situations, did he pursue the truth and those things which bring glory to God? As time progresses, time will show whether or not our thoughts and actions put us into that category of man which we all idolize as a “hero.”

For most men, time will be the great arbiter of whether or not they can be our heroes.

It is a rare occasion when a man is asked in a moment to prove his mettle at the sacrifice of his life; but for those of us who have not faced that choice, it is up to us to learn from those who went before and seek what made them great, what element of truth they possessed.

Heroism is one of those inspirations that grabs you in the dark and asks you to move blindly into somewhere that you can’t know.

Much like the challenge of faith, if you cannot risk it all then you need not apply.

Though at times it might seem clear, heroism can be sublime. Heroism comes in many different forms. We glamorize and idolize it, reading about it in books and thinking about what we could or would do if challenged by something great. If challenged in a moment or a year…could I be said to have feared God and kept his commandments? .

Could I be said to have fulfilled the duty of man?

Heroism was seen in Kajaki, in the faces of my soldiers, pouring off of their helicopters and moving each to their places unsure of what the night would bring them. Heroism is found in the actions of a nation, sacrificing its wealth and its sons for what might be or could be freedom someday.

On June 6, I witnessed another type of heroism.

As Charlie Company was moving towards the enemy during the early morning hours, the squads and platoons that are made of those brave men who volunteer to serve came under heavy fire from the enemy.

Just as a company of heroes moved forward into town, the sun was beginning to rise and we neither knew of the crushing defeat that the Taliban would suffer on that day, or of the hero that would be borne to us in catastrophe.

SGT Charles Wyckoff was one of those men of whom you can feel confident in describing as a friend of all. His good nature not only made him easy to know, it made him one of those men whom you sought out. He was the man who you always knew would confidently do what needed to be done and would do it well.

On the sixth of June 2007, Sergeant Charles Wyckoff was the man who faced the question of heroism in the face and rose confidently to the challenge.

As the sun was rising, Sergeant Wyckoff displayed heroism in leading men to the village in the face of the enemy….he displayed uncommon courage when he died saving the lives of five men.

At the beginning of a day of great victory and great loss, I saw one man rise to the challenge and be given the grace to emerge a hero in a moment;



I suppose it is one of those clichés that you read about during war…the uncommon serenity of the sun and its complete abandon to what has happened all around.

Your life has just been changed, but the sun and the world continue apace. Darkness and cool replace the crushing heat and light of the day.

As the sun continues to set, you are faced with the challenge of crystallizing what has happened and it turns out that you might find that the truth of those memories and those actions can only be contained in the hearts of those who seek to know…

…those who seek to know someone who has achieved our dream of heroism.

In Memoriam…


Sergeant Charles Wyckoff



Killed in Action 06 June 2007
Helmand River Valley, Afghanistan

3 comments:

MSB said...

John~that is an amazing tribute. Your writing gave me chills. You are one of the heroes I pray for everyday. God bless, Mandy

Anonymous said...

John- Your tribute is unbelievable.. The things you all have been.. and are going through are things we can't even imagine.. and your definition of hero is how I've described you more times than I can count . We love and miss you-mary

Quigg Lawrence said...

Hey John

We pray for you and Michael and our troops regularly. Thanks for serving our country and the Lord. Do you need anythign? Goodie bag?

Quigg+