Monday, July 7th, 2008...A day that will never be forgotten

On Monday, July 7th 2008, a day that most of us were going back to work, from a long weekend of celebrating 4th of July, the day known as independence, but somewhere in the deserts of Iraq, was a day that he will probably never forget. This day might not been told to anyone, until he decided on the day he returned home on December 9th. It was mentioned in an “Oh, by the way” attitude, to his mom and girlfriend, giving them a uneasy feeling. It was on that day that he released in small detail of what happened to him on that particular day, the day that earned him a Purple Heart. Some of you may not know what a Purple Heart is: a Purple Heart is issued to the soldier (or the family) that was injured or killed during combat.

I don’t know the whole story and quite frankly, I don’t want to know ALL the details, so I am going to do my best to make a somewhat of a true scenario that happened that day. This is only from my account and how God worked in my and my families life.

It probably started as a same ole routine, getting up, getting his army fatigues on, breakfast and getting his soldiers together for the mission ahead. They headed out in the heat of the day, his military truck probably the first in line, as they guarded the vehicles that were transporting cargo to their destination, when his military truck was struck with an IED (improvised explosive device), also known as the roadside bombs we hear on the news. His truck was equipped with a safety feature that would hit an IED before the truck itself would. Imagine a lint roller in front of your son’s toy dump truck; this is what the truck looked like. This lint roller hit the IED first, causing an aftershock, rattling the truck and the soldiers in it. I am unsure of the injuries of the soldiers, none of which were serious. I know the passenger, the Sargent of this group, sustained a concussion, causing ringing in his ears, and problems with his vision. Although he doesn’t know the long term effects of this, he doesn’t keep him down. He came home for some R&R with the rest of his group in August, not mentioning to anyone what had happened no more than a month before. He just visited with his family and enjoyed LIFE at home. He went back to Iraq and continued on his missions. Protecting and securing our freedom.

On Sunday, February 22nd, Sargent Grant Mattingly, my brother, and my hero, received the Purple Heart for his injuries sustained on Wednesday, July 16th. There wasn’t a time that I wasn’t scared for my brother, I prayed for him, for God to stay beside him, to give him the strength and comfort to get through this. I knew there was a possibility of him getting hurt or killed, but I knew that God had a plan for him. When I heard that he got injured, I first felt mad that he didn’t tell us when he was home for leave, but I knew that he didn’t want us to worry (I guess he knew us all too well, because I would have been worried myself sick), then I turned angry because he got hurt and I wasn’t there to be with him, to comfort him (it’s the big sis in me), then my angry quickly went away and a peace came upon me. Not knowing that my brother was injured, I had a heavy heart for sometime and I knew that I needed to do something extra to help him through this tour of duty. So, I knew that I need to pray (and have others prayer, too) more than ever that God would be with him and he was. He was there that day his truck hit that IED, God had protected my brother and the other soldiers in that truck. And I Thank God for that. What a marvelous God we have.

My brother is settling in to civilization (home), something I know will take time to get used to. Something that I am sure all soldiers have to get used too. They (all soldiers that have been deployed) were in extreme conditions over there. Something that we take for granted. They have to be on alert all hours, minutes, and seconds of the day. Not knowing if a simple bag would have explosives in them or a sweet child having explosives wrapped around them. They are always on alert, so when they come back home, they are still in that alert mode. The last couple of months we have all been trying to adjust having him back full time, we are trying to spend as much of our time with him. With a lot of the time he loves on his family, especially his nieces and nephew. They know very little about what happened to their Uncle Grant, especially the 2 littlest ones. Tristan and Grace know that their uncle is a soldier and went over the ocean to protect us and that is all they know. During the awards ceremony on Sunday, Grace saw his Purple Heart and thought of Valentines Day, her words were “It’s a Valentine’s Heart, Mom”. She doesn’t know what that heart really meant and probably won’t until she gets older and asks what that Purple Heart really is about. But every time I see my brother, I know what he endured for my freedom and the safety of this country. I am grateful to our Almighty God for being with my brother and bringing him back to us. We know have more time with him and being able to share the blessings God has given to us.

My brother is truly amazing, and my Hero.

I love you Grant and Thank you.

Sargent Grant Mattingly

The Purple Heart

God Bless...

Jess