You may know that my son, Caleb, spent a hundred years in Iraq in 2004. Since then, I look for news that inspires me about that questionable war. Here is one of those things. I got it by email. It probably has already made the email rounds a few times. No matter. I want it recorded here, too. Here’s the story that came with the photo:

John Gebhardt’s wife, Mindy, said that this little girl’s entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head…but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John’s hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.

He is a real Star of the war, and represents what America is trying to do.

This, my friends, is worth sharing with the WORLD! Go for it!! You’ll never see things like this in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don’t, but the American public needs to see pictures like this and needs to realize that what we’re doing over there is making a difference. Even if it is just one little girl at a time.

James Gates U. S. Navy

(Note: I can’t be sure what our government is trying to do in Iraq, but I am sure about the men and women who are fighting there. It’s pictures like this that remind me. And recollections of the things that my son told me about the character and compassion the soldiers he knew, some of whom did not come home. See the archive, March & April 2005)