My brother

"Out of every 100 men, 10 should not even be here, 80 are nothing but targets, 9 are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they the battle make." "Ah, but the ONE, ONE of them is a WARRIOR, and he will bring the others back." Heraclitus 500 BC
Wow!
I saw my brother yesterday and will not see him again until he returns from Afghanistan in about a year. I have an abundance of emotions. My heart aches because I will miss him. I am also afraid of what may happen to him. I don’t want him to go through what he is about to go through. I am sad for his wife, our Mom and Dad, and our siblings as well as the rest of the family because of the emotional turmoil of the coming months. My heart hurts and my eyes well up when I think of how much my brother loves my children and how they will go from being a two year-old and a newborn to a three year-old and a one year-old while he is gone. He fears that my little boy will forget him, he won’t.
I embraced my brother and told him the things every man needs to hear. I love him. I am so very proud of him. I have been blessed by three great siblings that I am so very proud of. I will miss my brother. He is a good man. He will do good and take care of his men. These are the things I told him.
I want to tell everyone the following. My brother is a warrior. Everyone who sends a loved one to some place like Afghanistan for some time such as this would probably say the same of their loved one but I’m not saying it because it makes me feel good or it makes him look good. I am saying it because it is true. My brother is the one in a hundred that is truly a warrior that will bring the others back. He is stronger than most men. He is smarter than most men. He is tougher than most men. He is the type of man that other men want to be. He will be a tremendous asset to the cause of freedom that is being fought in the small towns of Afghanistan. People like him have been the difference makers in fights such as these for centuries.
Please pray for my brother’s, and all our soldier’s, physical safety and emotional well-being. Pray that he will draw close to his savior during this time. Pray that his family, especially his wife and mother, will be comforted in his absence over the next 11-12 months as they will be most anxious. Pray also that our entire family and the family of each service man and woman putting their life at risk will find peace and rest in a living God.