Too long and too painful

My daughter, Mariela, in the US Army, was attacked, December 18th. in Kuwait. She was changing a tire in her truck with three othersoldiers.
A civilian vehicle from Kuwait run over them on purpose, and runaway.
Two soldiers died, my daughter was transported to an hospital in Kuwait, then in Germany, to Landstuhl medical Center, and is presently in coma since December 18th., in Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC., The last soldier has broken legs and lost all his skin in the back, and is in a special hospital in Texas.

The following report I wrote, is the experience we had, flying to
Germany, the Christmas day, and back to Washington. We did learn something about this horrible war, that nobody, in the US want to know or to acknowledge.

As a parent, I would like other parents to know this, before they
even consider to send their kids to this place. But, how do let
other people know this, when your own government denounce pacifists
as anti-patriotic ?

I honestly think, that every American citizen, should have the guts
to read this.
Best regards,

Emile Meylan
12520 Morgan Territory road
livermore, CA 94551

This is a longer version of our trip report. There is not much more
to say about Mariela, but more about how I dealt with this
situation. I am not a writer, what you will read is painful, because
it was very painful for me to write it.

Just before Christmas, Mariela was transported from Kuwait to
Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany. Christmas day, Lisette, Jason
(her husband) and I flew to Germany. We saw her there for the first
time. It was not a pretty picture. A matter of fact, I thought we
were in the wrong room. Mariela was double her normal size. The
swelling due to the accident and IV feeding made her look like an
over-inflated balloon. She also had tubes and pipes all over her
head, neck, body.... After a few minutes, my brain and eyes started
to ignore all the instruments and tubes and I had to realize, even
if I didn't like it, that this was my little girl in this bed.

Because of her very serious injury, the doctors decided to transport
her ASAP to the US. December 26th Mariela was scheduled to be
transferred to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC.

She was transported via Air Evac in a flying hospital (C141) from
Germany to Washington DC. We were invited to fly with her. This was
a new experience for us. Not the most beautiful experience.

Mariela was in this plane together with fifty kids (18-25 years) all
injured from Iraq. Legs missing, arm, hands, fingers... some like
Mariela, non-responsive. It was a nightmare, and this is the true
side of this war, even if nobody wants to see it.

We arrived in Washington DC at 2AM. I was talking to one of the
injured soldiers sitting next to me in the plane, and I told him how
strange it seemed to me that they landed this plane at 2AM. He told
me that he had already been to Iraq four times and that this was the
second time he had been Air Evacuated for injury, and that he knew
the government of our country didn't want it's citizens to see these
injured soldiers. I was pretty upset by such a statement.

Where is George Bush with his stupid smile, where is his Vice-
President, their patriotism, and their big music? They were
definitely not here!

Later, I was checking this statement with other people, and was
told, the US Air Force has to fly at night because they should not
interfere with commercial air traffic. I buy this, but in the US,
most of the citizen have 60 TV channels, and each of this channels
show the same image of George Bush getting busy to be the man of the
year, and you can see the same picture every 30 min.

But none of these channels show our kids coming back form the war in
pieces.

Why is that?

Also, the pilot made a horrible statement. "I do this very same trip to Germany/Washington DC, three times every week."

Two big ambulances bring this soldiers to the hospital.
Walter Reed Medical Center is huge. Of course, there are more
injured, more trauma, more ... and less legs and arms. This is a
very unusual site for us, coming from Switzerland, a country which
has not been touched by war in 150 years.

One evening, in the hotel, I went to the bar downstairs for a
beer. Next to me was a man about 70 years old. A veteran, typical
clothing, black jacket with medals all over, and a military hat. He
asked me if I was a soldier. I said " No, my name is Emile and I am
a father and my daughter was injured in the war and is in this
hospital". He said:

" Thank you, Simon" and he kissed me. For him there is no doubt, a
guy with a French accent can only be called "Simon". He says: "I
have been to Vietnam, and I lost half of my back. I am here, because
my son just came back from Iraq and lost both legs. I am so proud of
my son and your daughter, Simon, I want to buy you a beer !"

I just realized that I could never talk to this man, about my
hostility toward this government and this war. The last thing this
guy wants to hear, is that he and his son did all this for nothing.

"Simon, my son and your daughter did the most beautiful thing in
this world, and this is why we are in such a great country ! " he
said and kissed me again.

That night I went back to our room pretty confused. I didn't know
anymore what to think. This guy is somehow right, Mariela was happy
in the US Army. She had a job, a responsibility. The Army gave her a
reason to live, to do something for other people and to feel
needed. The US Army gave Mariela something that, we, her parents,
did not accomplish. Whatever happens in the future, I will always
remember the US Army has been good to Mariela.

Lisette was sleeping, the TV was still on. I switched the TV off and
went to the window to close the curtains. Looking trough the window,
I saw two big ambulances parked in front of the hospital. They are
here on time. Like a clock. Right on time. And three times a week,
they bring 30 - 50 kids or what is left of them.

I closed the curtains and went to the bathroom. I needed to throw
up.

emile