Jun 16 2008
Wake Up America!
Last Saturday I was given the opportunity to meet Major Joe Ko, US Army Chaplain. Joe is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of Korea. For the past year he’s been stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital and has been working with our wounded veterans. Joe came to our church’s Saturday Morning Men’s Breakfast and shared with us his experiences and his personal vision.
A little background; our associate pastor, Dr. Fred Carr is a retired US Army Lt. Colonel and became a spiritual mentor to Joe. 9 years ago they were both stationed in Germany. At the time, Joe was a Captain and Fred was a Major. As Joe related it, he was struggling with understanding God’s calling for his life and whether the military was really where God wanted him to be and approached Fred for some guidance. What Joe told us, that Fred had told him, struck me like an epiphany but I didn’t write it down at the time, so I had to email Fred about it. From Fred’s reply:
"It was funny that I didn’t remember having said that to him, but I remember it was on my heart about that time. I told Joe that what God looked for in us was faithfulness - faithfulness to the assignment he had given us. It is easy to be become subjective when an assignment isn’t as enjoyable or fulfilling as we might want, but God wants us to receive it and be faithful to the opportunity. Of course that doesn’t answer the question "should I resign or continue in the Army" but is does help see that when you get up every day you can give God what he is looking for by your faithfulness to serve him where he has currently assigned you."
Major Ko opened by telling us of his duties as one of the chaplains at Walter Reed. It’s my understanding that he was here specifically to learn how to relate to our wounded veterans and so to facilitate this learning the chaplains are rotated thru the various wards at the hospital. He had a number of stories about some of the patients that he’s gotten to know, some of them were horrific, some heroic and inspiring, but one in particular stood out. I’m hoping I have all my facts correct but some of the stories he related started to overlap one another due to their horrific nature.
The soldier is only 22 years old. He was out with his squad on what sounded like a routine patrol. His group had stopped for a moment and were actually taking a break, smoking cigarettes, talking and joking around, when a mortar round struck in the middle of the group instantly killing his 4 friends and leaving him critically wounded. When he woke up, it was too find that he was a triple amputee. Both legs and his right arm had had to be removed. I have to imagine that there was also a lot of other physical trauma that wasn’t mentioned. Joe met him while on rounds in the psychiatric ward. Physically the soldier was recovering from his injuries but mentally he was in anguish. This particular day he was refusing all treatments and any of his medicine. He was highly agitated and verbally abusive to the nursing staff, which is when one of them, just having left the room saw the Joe and asked if he’d go talk to this soldier. Now Joe’s reaction is I think the same as most of us would have and that’s, "What am I supposed to say to this poor guy?"
