Lesson #1

                AJ and David met while serving in the Army, the year was 1989, the place, Fort Ord, California.

                             I met them a few months ago on board in the Horizon Court Dining Area. I was intrigued by the writing on their shirts… it read, “DD-214 Alumni.” And they had hats with DD-214 emblazoned on them.

                             I was  curious because they did not look old enough to have served in WWII. DD is the Navy’s prefix for identifying destroyers. The Navy uses different alpha-identifiers to distinguish between the types of ships, CV is aircraft carriers, DE is Destroyer Escorts, BB is Battleships, CA is for Heavy Cruisers, and the list goes on….. DD-214 was the destroyer, USS Tracey, who had an exemplary reputation and record during that war. I thought that maybe they were the descendants of someone who had served on her.

I had to find out.

One day, mid-morning, they were sitting alone at their usual table. I walked over, introduced myself and asked about the DD-214 and the USS Tracey. They immediately burst out laughing and saying, “We knew you were going to ask about that!”

          They went on to explain that they had no knowledge about the Navy and the USS Tracey, until someone had asked the same question that I did. They went on to further explain that the DD-214 was the standard form used by the Department of Defense (DD) (form 214)  and was issued to most of the veterans when they get discharged from active service.

                             Hence the DD-214 “Alumni” written on their shirts.

                             I then sat down and heard their story.

                   They call each other “brother”.

                   Not “Bro”

                   They are obviously not related.

                   But they refer to each other as “my brother.”

          This kind of relationship is the kind that is forged in the heat of battle.  Every battle is not shared, but the experience is.

I am in constant awe of the persons that put their lives on the line in the name of defense of our Homeland. AJ served in Vietnam in ’71 and David was in Special Ops In El Salvador in ‘88/’89.             

One day, David watched as a new Platoon Sergeant rolled up in Fort Ord. It was some new guy named AJ Griggs. Dave asked him if he needed some help.

And the rest is history.

The time period that David served in was relatively calm compared to what AJ experienced in Vietnam. But there were some “Hot Spots”, one of them being El Salvador. David spent a year there in Special Operations, you know, the kind that goes unappreciated because no one really knows why you are there, except maybe the CIA.

          Returning home after experiencing combat situations, David was in need of someone to talk to. Because of the relatively calm conditions in the world at the time, the guys surrounding David did not have any combat experience, hence they had never suffered anything like what David had gone through.

                   Enter AJ.

                   AJ was one of David’s superiors and he recognized immediately what was going on. He was the only one that could effectively work with David and all those demons that accompany a returning soldier from the front. Even David’s immediate superiors did not have the same combat experience level that David had, and it was AJ, who was still junior to those superiors that told them to back off.

                             He would take care of this.

                             David had finally found someone who could commiserate with him, acknowledge the difficulties, and finally help bring him “back” from the combat that no one knew about.

                             Sitting across the Horizon Court I watch these two brothers, morning after morning they arrive early to sit with each other and some other veterans who have found each other on the ship.

                             I am always welcome at their table, the DD-214’s, but I will never be one of the guys, I cannot be, for I have not run that gauntlet of battle and emerged on the other side. Combat wounds come in many different forms and one of them is PTSD, a clinical acronym that defines a diagnosis but sterilizes it at the same time.

                             Maybe it would be better to go back to what it was called during the Civil War….. when it was known simply as…..

Soldiers Heart.