10 Purple Hearts

They say there is no such thing as an atheist on the battlefield and with few exceptions I would have to agree. I would also like to add that superstition is not an uncommon virtue among fighting men. That being stated, on my last day of work at my civilian job (December 1st) I was walking from our A&R (admissions & records) department to my office when something on the ground caught my eye. People were walking past a small sheet of paper with what appeared to be a purple object repeated several times. As I got closer I realized that it was a sheet of adhesive postage stamps and the image was that of the Purple Heart medal. For those who don’t know, the Purple Heart is given to those service members who sustain injury or are killed during combat operations. I was a little alarmed at first with superstition taking over my thoughts. I mean a sheet of purple hearts as I’m going off to war? I counted them and there were 10. I folded them up and stuck them in my wallet. I then spent the next few minutes trying to decipher the meaning of my discovery while mentally chiding myself for being superstitious. I found myself asking “what is the true meaning of my finding”. Was it the number of Purple hearts I could expect to see in my unit on our upcoming deployment, or the maybe the total number that will be issued out to members of my unit during the War on Terror? At this point in time I think 6 have been issued to Marines in my unit with only one being awarded posthumously. Was it an indicator that I will be wounded or killed? Could it just have been that it was my lucky day for finding $3.70 in postage stamps? In order to get the issue worked and out of my brain housing group I decided to share the tale with a few friends. Some had there own theories, such as the “you can get a purple heart without being killed right?”, or the “you are really putting too much thought into it”, and of course the “wow, that really sucks man, you’re a goner!” As it turns out, I’m fairly certain that the reason I found the 10 Purple Heart stamps was because quite possibly at that moment half way around the world, 10 of my brother Marines lost their lives to an improvised explosive device (IED) while on foot patrol in Fallujah. It gave me pause when I heard the news and it was like a light had suddenly illuminated shedding some clarity over my discovery and banishing the gloomy superstitious feelings I had. It was for those 10 brave souls I believe I found those Purple Heart stamps for and it’s for them that I will pray for tonight. Please join me in remembering those 10 Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice in Fallujah on December 1st, 2005.