Story by: Steve Tressler
(Currently deployed overseas.)
Let me begin by saying that I prayed for Kevin Ware after seeing him injured last night while watching the game live here in Africa. I saw the horrified looks on the faces of the players, the fans, and the coaches.
Today on Facebook I saw post-after-post to pray for Kevin Ware. I thought the outpouring of love to, and for, that kid was awesome.
If you can, and I hate to do this, picture that injury in your mind one more time. The way his leg just seemed to fall limp below the knee and yet the bone stayed rigid. Remember how bad that made you feel? Remember how sick you were when you saw that? Remember how you wanted him to be OK and you knew, if you could, you would do whatever you could to help him?
Louisville players celebrate and hold up injured Kevin Ware’s jersey. They will return to the Final Four for the second year in a row.
Now imagine you’re a Soldier or Marine and you see injuries just like that and even worse every single day for a year, and they happen to your closest friends. This is what a deployment was like for many of our service men and women who served not just in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in every war before it.
This is why we salute our veterans.
This is why veterans deserve the benefits they have earned.
I know we’re Soldiers. We are also human. We feel shock. We feel pain. We love our country.
So if you ever see that ‘Kevin Ware’ type-of-injury happen again, go ahead and picture it, because I want you to remember that as US servicemembers who volunteer to protect you, and all the freedoms you are entitled to as Americans, we do so knowing that we could be injured just like Kevin or even die doing it.
PS – All the guys watching the game said a prayer for you Kevin, hang tough!
