George E. Whalen passed away on June 5th. The VA Salt Lake City Medical Center is named after this WWII Medal Of Honor recipient. Congress passed a special one time approval for the med center to be named after a living person. Mr. Whalen received his MOH as a Navy corpsman (medic) on Iwo Jima. One article stated he saved countless lives during which he was wounded three times. He always said he did it because he did not want to let any Marines down for not doing his job. Later Mr. Whalen joined the Army and served in Korea and Vietnam and retired from the Army at the rank of Major.
I knew one other Navy corpsman, JB Thorton. JB was Ron and Steve's age. He was killed in Vietnam while on patrol with Marines. The Marine Corps does not have its own medics, they all come from the Navy. Ron was wounded twice in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf (each oak leaf means an additional award of a medal).
As you all know, I get real emotional about things military. Even now there are tears welling up as I type. I have often wondered as in Matthew's last post, where is God? I know where He is, there is just more I don't know, so much more. We often ask ourselves why things do or don't happen. Perhaps asking the question causes more problems than not asking or pondering.
It is like this job. I needed to work so each day didn't seem to last as much as two days. But as time has progessed I wonder each day why I come to work. It is like right this very minute (1217) I have had two expense reports to approve since 0948, nothing else to do. I can only read so much news. I read a little about Teddy Roosevelt, what an amazing man. A real American Hero that just happened to be a President.
Thoughts
