On Call In Hell - Hero M.D. Richard Jadick

Stacy S. Rhee

Ms. Jensen

English 300

28 October 2006

On Call Doctor For God?

           Newsweek magazine, on March 20, 2006, featured Richard Jadick, a Navy rank of lieutenant commander who earned his Bronze Star with a Combat V for valor. The front page displayed his picture with cover story, “Hero M.D.: The Amazing Story Of the War’s Most Fearless Doctor.” The article, “On Call In Hell” by Pat Wingert and Evan Thomas, illustrated Jadick being a Gunnery Sergeant in the First Battalion, the Eighth Marine Regiment (the “1/8”) in Iraq for the latter half of 2004. Since Jadick had been a Marine officer before, he was not scared to push himself closer to combat. In Iraq, he was able to treat traumatic injuries within a “golden hour”(37) and saved hundreds of wounded comrades. Jadick showed peerless courage and bravery during the war in Fallujah, Iraq.

Jadick was shipped out for Iraq, when he was 38—“too old, really, to be a combat surgeon”(34). Because of having trouble finding a doctor to send to Fallujah, a medical committee came for help at Camp Lejeune, N.C. where Jadick was one of the senior medical officers. They asked, “Who could we send?” Jadick said, “Well, I could go”(34). Even though his family and friends told him he was crazy, even though it could be a bitter journey to hell, he headed out to Fallujah to rescue the Marines.

At first, Jadick was stationed in the city far from the battlefield that he could not help badly injured comrades. They were dying even before they reach to the hospital. They could not arrive within an hour, the so-called “golden hour”(37). The wounded could be saved, if a doctor treated them right away. Nonetheless, there was no way to transfer them to the hospital before it was too late for them to be saved. Helicopter evacuations were even riskier. Thus, Jadick decided to go to the front line of the fight.

In very effective way, Jadick “set up an emergency room in the middle of the battlefield”(40), where fine dust hung in the air, where he could hear rocket fire and smell cordite from gunpowder. He treated his wounded marines where enemy snipers were hiding and bullets were hissing around him. Rescuing the badly wounded corporals in a moving ambulance, Jadick brought them back to life, handed over to a new doctor at a transfer station, and headed back to the inferno to save more young marines. Because of Jadick’s valor and keen judgments, hundreds of marines were saved in Fallujah, one of the worst urban fighting zones since the Vietnam War. Moreover, Jadick set himself as an example for “Being a battalion surgeon is one of the greatest jobs there is,” and said, “I would do it again”(43).

For enhancing Jadick’s story, the writers of “On Call In Hell,” Wingert and Thomas, quoted a verse from the Bible: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’”—Isaiah 7:8(34), as if Jadick were the one who answered God’s calling. They presented Jadick’s story, as an example of the verse, as an on call doctor who was asked to save the U.S. Marines by God’s name. As a result, Jadick was awarded a Bronze Star with a Combat V for valor. The writers ended the article emphasizing that Jadick did the best he could in the battlefield, and mentioning that without his valor, “the Marines would have lost an additional 30 men”(43).

However, the writers brought up a hypothetical imperative to readers by quoting the Bible. In the article, Jadick ordered his men to kill the enemy in order to save his marines. Even though “Jadick had a struggle with the Hippocratic Oath (“Do no harm”),” he had to make up his mind that “it’s either kill or be killed”(41). The article implied that one side was allowed to kill the other side by God’s name, in order to save one side of lives. Moreover, it assured the readers that God was on U.S. troops’ side, and Iraq was the enemy’s side, stated, “He’s called Satan”(36).

People choose sides, not God. The real valor is not the one who kills the other side of people for saving the one’s side, nor one takes the risk to save one side of people who already harmed by the other side.  The best of the best for valor is to stop the war. It is the only way to avoid the world of “either kill or be killed”(41). It is the only world where our children should live. We should stop the war, just like the writers mentioned in the article, the theory of Hippocratic Oath, “Do no harm”(41).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Wingert, Pat and Thomas, Evan. (2006, March 20). on Call In Hell.

Newsweek. 34-43.