Embrace The Suck!
Brooke Army Medical Center is a hospital unlike any other in the world. I have seen miracle after miracle performed on dozens of wounded warriors that would have died in past wars. They specialize in burns, the most devastating wounds suffered on the battlefield.
The first time I was on Four East (the burn ward) I was with two other HUNTS FOR HEROES volunteers. They were also firefighters and EMTs like me. Together we had over 60 years of rescue, fire fighting, and first responder medical experience. I can assure you, there are no injuries that we have not seen but we had never seen injuries on people that were still alive like we saw that day.
One Marine I talked to that day still stands out in my memory. He was on his second trip around the ward on this dally walks. As he approached I couldn’t help but notice how small he looked. The flames of his blown up humvee had shrunk his body. His ears, nose, lips and fingers had been burned away or removed on the scrub tables on Four East. A Navy corpsman helped him along wiping the drool he was unable to hold in his mouth because of no lips.
His eyes were covered with rubber cups filled with some sort of solution to keep his eyes moist because his dead eye lids had been scrubbed away in the scrub showers. Each room he passed the warrior inside yelled out words of encouragement. As he approached us he stumbled and I instinctively reached out to catch him. As I caught his blistered, raw body he screamed out in agony. The shouts of encouragement were replaced with calls to EMBRACE THE SUCK. His name was Merlin German.
I never heard the term used until that day. I later learned it was a way for our wounded to deal with the pain and hopelessness of their situation. They have learned to take the pain and turn it into strength. They grab onto the utter hopelessness and fight it like the enemy it is. They must destroy the suck or the suck will destroy them.
Merlin German’s story is about the suck we on the HUNTS FOR HEROES team struggle with. All the pain and suffering we see has all of us EMBRACING THE SUCK. Just when I think we have won a great victory life jumps up and kicks us all in the balls AND THAT REALLY SUCKS.
Merlin’s story is best told at the following link. He embraced the suck and won. He is the HUNTS FOR HEROES JULY HERO OF THE MONTH. (POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka57JhctU2A