My Last Memorial Day in the US Army

My father has always been a pretty spiritual guy. Mind you I said spiritual and not religious. He believes in things like ghosts, karma, angels, and demons (Like real angels and demons, not the shitty Tom Hanks movie). When I was younger, he always used to tell me that I have angels watching over me.

I can remember when I was in sixth grade and I got hit by a car. I was getting off a bus and the bus driver waved for me and my friend Brendon to cross the street. Brendon ran across, and I was two seconds behind him. Two seconds too late. A car came out of nowhere and slammed on the brakes before hitting me.

The bus driver was mortified. After all, he is the one who directed us to cross the street. He ran out to check on me as I was laid out on the sidewalk. I had just bounced off a now bent street sign. He told me to lie still, but I got up and started walking it off. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. Later my father had a conversation with that bus driver. He loves to tell people what the bus driver said to him that day…

“The bus driver told me the car came out of nowhere and smacked David high up in the air. It looked like it was going to be real bad. But then he said it looked like angels caught him in the air and placed him on the side of the road. The guy said it was one of the most amazing things he’s ever seen.”

It was like that movie Angels in the Outfield… 
…except instead of catching a baseball, I was getting hit by a car. 

Now I always looked at it alot differently. I remember bouncing off the car and smacking off of a street sign before hitting the pavement. If those angels did catch me then they could have been a little gentler. I always make fun of my dad when he tells that story (he has a flair for the dramatic). Yet even as I make fun, there is a certain part of me that believes it as well. It’s hard for me not to.

Monday is Memorial Day. This will be my last Memorial Day under contract with the US Army. As of November 09′ I am officially done. As I sit here laughing about the angels who “caught me” that day, I can’t help but think about how they’ve stuck with me throughout my life.

I got an email today from one of my army buddies. We were rommates together at Ft. Drum. He just got back from his second tour in Iraq and he was telling me how lucky I was to have stayed back. I was one of only two people in out company of 200+ people who avoided deployment. The other one got pregnant (something I am not capable of doing).

I was put through alot of crap when I was at Ft. Drum. Especially when the sergeants found out I wasn’t going to Iraq. They thought it was a load of crap. They tried everything they could to get the doctors to sign off on my deployment papers. Luckily my blood pressure stayed just high enough to ensure that didn’t happen. After being held at Ft. Drum for nearly ten months, they eventually conceded and sent me home. I have gotten countless letters from the Army trying to pull me back in, but I have managed to avoid it at each step of the way.

Now as I sit here thinking about my old friend who just missed his daughters second birthday after missing her first birthday last year, I can’t help but think about how lucky I am to have those angels looking out for me.

Enjoy your weekend everybody. I know I will.

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