On Call Doctor For God?

 

 

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 the 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 performing a battlefield surgeon 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 did not scare to push himself closer to combat. In Iraq, he was able to treat traumatic injuries within a “golden hour”(Wingert 37) and saved hundreds of wounded comrades. Jadick showed his 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”(Wingert 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”(Wingert 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 so far from the battlefield that he could not help badly injured comrades. They were dying even before they reached to the hospital, because they could not arrive within an hour, the so-called “golden hour”(Wingert 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 where he could hear rocket fire and smell cordite from gunpowder.

 

In very effective way, Jadick “set up an emergency room in the middle of the battlefield”(Wingert 40), where fine dust hung in the air. He treated his wounded marines in the site where enemy snipers were hiding and bullets were hissing around him. Rescuing the badly wounded corporals in an ambulance, Jadick brought them back to life, handed them over to a new doctor at a transfer station, and headed back to the inferno to save more young marines. Jadick did the best he could in the battlefield, without his valor, “the Marines would have lost an additional 30 men”(Wingert 43). 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.

 

To frame 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(Wingert 34). The writers presented Jadick’s story, as if Jadick were the one who answered God’s calling. The writers used the verse implying Jadick as an example of an on call doctor, who was asked to save the U.S. Marines, in God’s name. At last, the writers ended the article with Jadick’s statements that “Being a battalion surgeon is one of the greatest jobs there is,” and “I would do it again”(Wingert 43). In reward, Jadick received a Bronze Star with a Combat V for valor.

 

However, the writers brought up a hypothetical imperative to readers by quoting the Bible emphasizing Jadick’s story. 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”(Wingert 41). Furthermore, the writers assured the readers that God was on the U.S. troops’ side, and Iraq was the enemy’s side, stating, “... the enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him”(Wingert 36). As a result, the article implied that one side was allowed to kill the other side in God’s name.

 

But the truth is people chose sides, not God. The people, who have power, ordered their innocent young soldiers to kill the other side’s soldiers. Both sides’ soldiers just followed their leaders’ orders without knowing what they were doing, without perceiving what was right or what was wrong. In the same vein, an American author, John Steinbeck illustrated “the herd” throughout in his novel, The Moon Is Down, written in 1942 during World War II. Steinbeck proclaimed “the herd” cannot think for themselves but only follow the orders, the propaganda.

 

Steinbeck indicated that both sides’ soldiers were “the herd,” just like flies follow the herd without knowing where they are heading to, or where they are falling into danger, stating, “Flies conquer the flypaper. Flies capture two hundred miles of new flypaper!”(Steinbeck 67). Both sides are the same herds, which followed the orders to kill the other side without thinking themselves. Moreover, Steinbeck exposed the real valor, which is “free men” who can think for themselves and distinguish what is right or what is wrong. He stated, “Free men cannot start a war” (Steinbeck 113), and warned “the herd,” “I hope you know what you are doing”(Steinbeck 55, 102).

 

The real valor is not to take sides, nor to create more herd mentalities. Also, the real valor is living as free men with the Hippocratic Oath, “Do no harm.” Living as a free man (or woman) with the real valor is the only way to avoid the world of “either kill or be killed”(Wingert 41). The world without war is the only place where our children should live and passes on to our new generations as nature cycles. Therefore, the best of the best for valor is not to take sides but to stop war, and live as free men (and women).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down: With an Introduction by Donald V. Coers. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.

Wingert, Pat and Thomas, Evan. (2006, March 20). on Call In Hell. Newsweek. 34-43.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Synopsis

"The Moon is Down, " Steinbeck's comment on the moral and ethical implications of war, begins in an unknown town that has just been occupied by a small regiment of enemy soldiers. With no altenrnative, the Mayor of the town agrees to meet with the enemy to try to work out a plan for peaceful co-existence before the impending war goes much further.

 

 

Reviews

John Steinbeck knew and understood America and Americans better than any other writer of the twentieth century. ("The Dallas Morning News") A man whose work was equal to the vast social themes that drove him. (Don DeLillo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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