Off to one side, one man sat alone against a mud wall. He was pensive, almost serene. He had a stack of books next to his gear. He introduced himself as Darryl Richard St. George, a 29-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., who used to teach high school history. Now he cares for wounded Marines.
"I taught 10th and 12th grade. I loved teaching; it was a great job," St. George says. "But I felt like something was missing. I kind of — I felt compelled to serve. So I looked into taking a leave of absence and I enlisted in the United States Navy for five years to be a corpsman."
A Call To Contribute Directly
St. George says that "something missing" had to do with the fact that amid all that was going on in the world and in the United States, people seemed to have forgotten about what's going on in Afghanistan.
"That didn't sit very well with me," he says. "I had known a number of people who'd served, and some students as well; one student who was a Marine and died in Iraq. All of those things kind of rolling around in my head, I wanted to — how can I put this? — I wanted to directly contribute in some way."
There was also family tradition. His father served with the Marines, like his father and grandfather before him. But St. George said his father was worried when Darryl decided to join. His father had come to dislike the Marines' hard-charging, hard-drinking culture. And he worried about his son's safety in a combat zone
via www.npr.org
Greater love....
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