Wallaby, the Soldier We Never Expected

By Jeff Becraft

 

Years ago, I was at a friend’s wedding in Virginia Beach and one of the friends who was also at the wedding was telling me about a guy we called Wallaby.

He said to me, “Did you know that Wallaby is in the army?”

And I was like, “Wallaby is in the army?”

He said, “Yeah… he’s a lieutenant in the army”

“A lieutenant? Wallaby?! He’s a lieutenant in the army?!”

“Yeah… he was on the cover of Soldier of Fortune magazine.”

“Wallaby?!”

Back in school at Virginia Tech, Wallaby was probably the most unmilitary guy you can possibly imagine. He always ran around in bare feet and no shoes, even in the wintertime, and he would wear this kind of like fishing hat that looked like Huck Finn or something. I just couldn’t wrap my head around that Wallaby was in the military.

And then my friend Kevin said, “Yeah, it was Wallaby’s unit that was the first unit to go in to take Noriega’s headquarters.”

I was just astounded, and said, “Wallaby?…”

Well, sometime later, there was another friend, Mr. Mert, who was getting married. (Now, to talk about Mr. Mert, he deserves a Friday email all by himself…) I flew into Indianapolis, and who do you think would pick me up at the airport?… but Wallaby.

And for an hour and a half as we rode in the car, I just asked questions. I asked him what it was like and what were all the different experiences he had been through. Wallaby had actually been in the Situation Room in the White House with Colin Powell and others mapping out the strategy to take over Noriega’s headquarters.

Wallaby said to me, “I was told I would lose 75% of my men in that mission.”

Then, while deep in thought, he said to me, “What do you say to a group of young guys the night before when you know the next day that 75% of them are going to die?”

So I asked him, “Well, what did you say to them?”  To which he responded. “I asked them if it was okay if I prayed for them. They all said yes. So I did.”

Through all my questions, Wallaby would elaborate on moment by moment what it was like,
what it felt like when you sent a man over to a certain position and as soon as he got there, he got wounded.

By the grace of God, they did not lose a single man that day.

But every single soldier in Wallaby’s unit (including Wallaby) was wounded. Wallaby and others were awarded the Purple Heart. He told me about going and visiting his men in the hospital afterwards, like one of his sergeants who would never walk again. And then looking at me (and when Wallaby looks at you, he looks deep into you), he said, “And most people have no idea the sacrifice that guy has made.”

We pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store. As we sat there for a moment before we got out of the car, I saw people parking their cars, grabbing grocery carts, just walking in, and I said, “Wallaby… what is it like to have gone through what you guys have gone through, and then to just be here and people are just walking into grocery stores and whatnot and have no idea what you guys have been through. I mean, what is that like to step back into “normal” life?”

I can’t remember what he said to me… but I think about our military people often along these lines and I know that has got to be a difficult thing for every single soldier out there. I was just recently talking to a guy who’s retired from the Army after 25 years, and that is one of the struggles he is facing right now: how do I readjust after everything I’ve experienced to just simple, “normal” life?

I don’t know if we can say Happy Memorial Day. For many of us, it can be happy and we get to go do things like grocery shopping, but that’s because others have experienced things that are not happy… and their sacrifice has given us the opportunity to be happy.

So let’s remember those who have paid an awful price, because if there is freedom, that means somebody else paid for it… through sacrifice and their very lives.

Let’s remember those people, honor those people, and be thankful for those people this Memorial Day weekend.

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].