Part 54 (1/2)

GETTING BETTER

The doctors performed all sorts of tests on my little girl. Some of them really p.i.s.sed me off.

I remember especially when they took blood, which they had to do a lot. They'd hold her upside down and p.r.i.c.k her foot; a lot of times it wouldn't bleed and they'd have to do it again and again. She'd be crying the whole time.

These were long days, but eventually the docs figured out that my daughter didn't have leukemia. While there was jaundice and some other complications, they were able to get control of the infections that had made her sick. She got better.

One of the things that was incredibly frustrating was her reaction to me. She seemed to cry every time I held her. She wanted Mommy. Taya said that she reacted that way to all men-whenever she heard a male voice, she would cry.

Whatever the reason, it hurt me badly. Here I had come all this way and truly loved her, and she rejected me.

Things were better with my son, who remembered me and now was older and more ready to play. But once again, the normal troubles that parents have with their kids and with each other were compounded by the separation and stress we'd all just gone through.

Little things could really be annoying. I expected my son to look me in the eye when I was scolding him. Taya was bothered by this, because she felt he wasn't accustomed to me or my tone and it was too much to ask a two-year-old to look me in the eye in that situation. But my feeling was just the opposite. It was the right thing for him to do. He wasn't being corrected by a stranger. He was being disciplined by someone who loved him. There's a certain two-way road of respect there. You look me in the eye, I look you in the eye-we understand each other.

Taya would say, ”Wait a minute. You've been gone for how long? And now you want to come home and be part of this family and make the rules? No sir, because you're leaving again in another month to go back on training.”

We were both right, from our perspectives. The problem was trying to see the other's, and then live with it.

I wasn't perfect. I was wrong on a few things. I had to learn how to be a dad. I had my idea of how parenting should be, but it wasn't based on any reality. Over time, my ideas changed.

Somewhat. I still expect my kids to look me in the eye when I'm talking to them. And vice versa. And Taya agrees.

MIKE MONSOOR

I'd been home for roughly two weeks when a SEAL friend of mine called and asked what was up.

”Nothing much,” I told him.

”Well, who did y'all lose?” he asked.

”Huh?”

”I don't know who it was, but I heard you lost another.”

”d.a.m.n.”

I got off the phone and started calling everyone I knew. I finally got a hold of someone who knew the details, though he couldn't talk about them at the moment, because the family had not been informed yet. He said he'd call me back in a few hours.

They were long hours.

Finally I found out Mike Monsoor, a member of our sister platoon, had been killed saving the lives of some of his fellow platoon members in Ramadi. The group had set up an overwatch in a house there; an insurgent got close enough to toss a grenade.

Obviously, I wasn't there, but this is the description of what happened from the official summary of action:

The grenade hit him in the chest and bounced onto the deck [here, the Navy term for floor]. He immediately leapt to his feet and yelled ”grenade” to alert his teammates of impending danger, but they could not evacuate the sniper hide-sight in time to escape harm. Without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life, he threw himself onto the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were lying in close proximity. The grenade detonated as he came down on top of it, mortally wounding him.

Petty Officer Monsoor's actions could not have been more selfless or clearly intentional. Of the three SEALs on that rooftop corner, he had the only avenue of escape away from the blast, and if he had so chosen, he could have easily escaped. Instead, Monsoor chose to protect his comrades by the sacrifice of his own life. By his courageous and selfless actions, he saved the lives of his two fellow SEALs.