Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Rick Lynch - Work Hard, Pray Hard: The Power of Faith in Action

CHAPTER 6

Developing
Spiritual Fitness

T hree days after the motor pool blew up in Kuwait, tragedy struck.

The whole lot of us were still recovering from the shock of it all, feeling thankful that no one had died and just starting to clean up the colossal mess, when somebody accidentally tripped a wire on an unexploded ordinance in the motor pool.

We have some amazing weaponry in the Army, including mines that can be remotely fired into an area, arm themselves, and then lay in wait until the enemy comes along to trip them. Somehow, in the series of explosions in the motor pool, one of those mines managed to remain armed and unexploded; and somehow during the sweep of the area to make sure it was safe to walk through, that one stray mine got triggered.

The explosion killed three men. In one awful instant, three young soldiers were gone.

These are hazardous jobs we do in the Army. We all know the risks. Even though we werent in active combat, the very nature of what we were doing there in Kuwait involved some level of danger at all times. But no one expected that explosion, just like no one expected the whole motor pool to go up in flames.

Enough was enough. With all wed been through in those trying three days, I decided it was my job to save another soldier from having to go in and witness the sight of those three dead men. I could have sent someone else in to pick up the body parts, but I didnt. I took that task on myself, with just a couple other select individuals. I wanted to minimize the trauma and effect of that tragedyout of respect to my men, both the living and the dead.

It was the not the first gruesome scene I had encountered up close in my military career, and it would not be the last.

Ive participated in nearly every major combat operation the United States has been a part of since 1991, which means Ive seen a lot. Ive seen my men mortally wounded. Ive had near brushes with death. Ive been left with nothing but ringing in my ears because the explosions came so close, and seen shrapnel shred the bodies of soldiers Id been talking to moments beforehand.

Back home, Ive attended the funerals of hundreds of soldiers. Ive stood side by side with family members whose hearts were so broken, just the sight of their faces could bring any man to tears.

Im not unique in any of this. There are many of us in the Army whove done these things. Since the Gulf War, weve sent a couple million of our men and women into combat situations, and there are thousands of officers whove done the hard work of both offering support to and sometimes delivering the worst news of all to the families of our soldiers back home.

So Ive asked myself: Why is it that some of us go off to war, witness horrible things, experience all sorts of traumaincluding the loss of limbs in many casesand come back with the ability to go on with our lives, some of us even feeling enriched by the experiences, while others go off and experience the very same things but return with horrible nightmares and other symptoms of PTSD, a debilitating set of invisible wounds that seem to knock us right out of the game? Im not talking about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which is a physical trauma caused by explosions, but rather the mental and spiritual wounds that as many as 200,000 soldiers seem to be suffering all across our land.

Why is it that Sarah has never had to calm me down from waking up screaming in the middle of the night, because I dont recall ever having a single nightmare related to my time in combat, when many wives experience that on a nightly basis with their husbands whove come home from the front lines? Why have I never experienced residual fear of loud noises, or been unable to function in any part of my daily life, when other soldiers and officers have experienced acute PTSD-type symptoms?

Outside of combat operations, in daily life, why is it that some people come through tragedies with more strength of character and resolve to work hard and change the world for the better, while others suffer and retreatsometimes for the rest of their lives?

Is it just in our DNA? Or is the ability to survive and even thrive after enduring hardship something we can train ourselves to do? Is enduring tragedy and trauma something we can prepare ourselves for? Because unexpected traumas happen to all of us, whether we enlist in the Army or not. No matter how safe from it you may feel right this second, there is little doubt that its comingin some way, shape or form. I dont think theres a person on Earth who isnt affected by some awful shock at some point during their lifetime.

Figuring out how we prepare for the unexpected and the tragic, how we develop the ability to conduct ourselves in the middle of any situation that might unfold, and how we develop the fortitude to carry on in its waketo me, seems like one of the most important discussions we ought to be having.

There seems to be lots of talk out there about how to treat trauma and depression. There are studies happening, there are new prescription medications being developed, there are always new methods of therapy going into practice, and many of those advances are having positive results. But as Ive stepped back and looked at the course of my own life, especially after having the opportunity to study the effects of war on soldiers at the research institute I was in charge of after I transitioned out of the Army, I wonder why it is were so focused on treatment after tragedy rather than trying to prepare for and get ahead of these tragedies in the first place.

I liken the difference between those two approaches to something we in the military refer to as getting left of the boom.

In Iraq, one of the biggest plagues of the war was the proliferation of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). The enemy was planting all kind of these things on the routes we traveled, and blowing up our trucks and personnel on a near daily basis at one point during the Iraq War. We seemed to have all sorts of response mechanisms in place for rescue and medical operations after an explosion occurredor what we referred to as the time period right of the boombut it occurred to some of us in the Army that what we really needed to do in order to stop this parade of trauma from happening was do everything in our power to get left of the boom. We needed to better figure out how to detect and avoid run-ins with IEDs altogether; how to spot them and dismantle them and overcome them before we hit them.

I think it would do us all some good to get left of the boom in life, too, to better prepare ourselves for the IEDs that life will inevitably place in our paths.

Im talking about the sort of things that came up at the very beginning of this book and have resurfaced at various points throughout: natural disasters (floods, tornadoes, hurricanes); human disasters (mass shootings, terrorist attacks, car accidentsand bus accidents); and even the smaller traumas that can sometimes affect us deeply, including the hiccups and delays in our fast-paced lives that lead many of us into bad behaviors. How are you going to handle the traffic jam that happens on the way to an important appointment? How are you going to handle the loss of your job? How are you going to handle the temptation of someone who wants you to cheat on your spouse? How are you going to handle the news that your mother or father has passed away? How are you going to handle the increase in your insurance premium, which you already cant afford? How are you going to handle the sudden loss of the one friend you could count on through thick and thin?

I can tell you how I used to handle some of these things: Id get road rage, Id rant and holler, Id sometimes throw things, Id sometimes break things. I was quick to fly off the handle throughout my twenties, and there are plenty of soldiers out there who were under my command whod be happy to tell you all about it. My anger when somebody didnt do their job, especially if that job involved watching out for the safety of others, could be epic.