Ghosts stay with doctor who was On Call in Hell
Ghosts stay with doctor who was On Call in Hell
Richard Jadick came home from the war in Iraq to a Bronze Star, with a combat V for valor. He thinks of those he served with in Fallujah every day.
In his book recounting that battle, On Call in Hell, Jadick, who grew up in Slingerlands, recalls Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Shane, a 250-pound Marine who turned in his cramped airplane seat on the flight to Iraq to say, "Sir, so you’re our new battalion surgeon. God, that’s the one job I wouldn’t want to have with the place we’re going." Shane would end up with his insides scrambled, facing a long recovery, after he was shot trying to bring a fellow Marine to safety in the midst of street fighting.
The Marine that Shane risked his life to save would die. Sergeant Lonny Wells, father of five, died in the ambulance Jadick was using to cart the wounded from the battlefield to his aid station.
"Lonny Wells was the first Marine to die in my arms, or die in my care. Not the last, but the first," Jadick says in his book.
Since hes been back in the States, a day hasnt passed when he hasnt thought about the decisions he made there, Jadick said in an interview while he was in the area on a tour to promote his book.
There are some things you can’t change, though, he said. Soldiers will get wounded and some of them will die in a war. "The reality is, you are there and you can’t influence that piece of the pie," said Jadick. All a doctor can do is try to help those he can.
When asked about being a Marine who has taken the Hippocratic oath First do no harm Jadick said that as a soldier, "I understand the mission is to destroy the enemy." Although he treated wounded Iraqis in his aid station alongside American soldiers, he said. "I never wanted to be judge and jury on an insurgent," he said. He squared it with himself and the soldiers in his unit by arguing that, if the insurgents want to die for their cause, keeping them alive is punishment enough.
The major insurgent stronghold in the city was a mosque and cultural center toward the middle of Fallujah, an idea that confounds Jadick. Using a religious center as a base for military operations is difficult to believe, he said.
"I really don’t think God gets involved in what happens here," he said, referring to the war. "I think it really hurts Him."
Jadick doesn’t consider himself a religious man, but he recalled finding a prayer card on a dying Marine. He wouldn’t call it divine intervention, Jadick said, "But it was a conversation."
The November, 2004 battle, considered the most fierce combat fighting for American troops since Vietnam, has stayed with him. "Nobody comes back from situations like that without some ghosts," Jadick said, but it was important to him to be part of something bigger.
He wouldnt comment on his views on the war, but he said that it was his loyalty to the Marine Corps and his fellow soldiers that inspired him.
"All I did was support," he said of his role in the battle. "There are heroes out there," he said of the soldiers serving in Iraq. "There are heroes every day."
He attributes his own fame to his position as a surgeon. "You can’t not like a guy who tries to save guys," he said. He received the Bronze Star for going above and beyond his duties, though.
It is rare that a surgeon is honored with the award with a V for valor. He was cited for saving lives by bringing medical care to the center of the battle.
"It was a sacrifice, it was a risk," he said of his service and the attention it has brought. "I think people identify with that."
