Anything For a Brother

This past April, the day before his wedding anniversary, a United States Marine lost his life in a field in Afghanistan.  One of his buddies noticed that his wedding ring was missing, and began searching the field for it.  He was exposed to enemy fire in a place where two men had already been killed, and he combed the dirt of a poppy field for a circle of metal less than two inches across.

Why would he do something like that?  His friend was already dead, and nothing was bringing him back.  Every moment he spent out in that field was a moment when he could cross someone's sight picture.  My guess is that he did it because he would want his own sacred momentos to be returned to his family.  Maybe it's a ring, or a crucifix, or the photos of children that soldiers will tuck into their uniforms so that they always have them, but he would want them taken back to his loved ones.

For whatever reason, this brave, foolish, loving man spent hours searching for it, and eventually he was successful.  Yesterday, he returned to Texas, and brought the ring with him.  He and other Marines who served together returned it to the young lady who lost a husband that day.

Warriors don't always come home.  But those who serve with them make sure their families can lean on them, even if it's just to get back a part of their soul that fell in the dust of a faraway farm field.