{"id":691,"date":"2012-08-31T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T22:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/WordPress\/?p=691"},"modified":"2012-08-31T16:00:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T22:00:05","slug":"what-a-small-world-and-how-god-connects-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/?p=691","title":{"rendered":"What a small world … and how God connects us! :)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My friend, Fisher (the Interpreter) at the Sugar Shack … (obviously edited to protect his identity)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Last December I wrote a blog about a man named Sam Fisher titled “a case of mistaken identity”.\u00a0 Since that point in time, I have gotten to know Fisher or \u201cFish\u201d as he used to be called by his (war buddies\/Army friends\/American friends…)\u00a0 much better through instant messaging and Facebook, and have felt compelled to re-share his story, and give you an update.\u00a0 You see, it was not until after the original post, that Fish and I realized how we even got to find out how we were originally connected.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2007 I supported SPC Jonathan Pacheco in the 2\/7 Army out of Ft. Hood, Texas, unit known as “Ghost Battalion”.\u00a0 My connection to Jonathan came about because of a random soldier in an airport, telling me his best friend never got mail and he asked me if I would “adopt” him.\u00a0 Honestly, it seems like I have known Jonathan my entire life now, and we became so close through his deployments and “in between” that he is like a son to me. (you can see a video about Jonathan here:\u00a0 watch?v=ULGFwHH4Rs0<\/a> )<\/p>\n

But the funniest thing is; this story isn’t meant to be about Jonathan.\u00a0 He is just beginning of this particular story.\u00a0 I mean, a stranger asked me to adopt him and I have done so since that day I met Desmond in the airport.\u00a0 But then I found out through a “case of mistaken identity” that not only the members of the Ghost Battalion were touched by my care packages.\u00a0 There was an Iraqi who was imbedded with the unit as an interpreter (known as a TERP).\u00a0 Fisher to this day, continues to tell me about the days at the ‘sugar shack” and\u00a0 how they would fight over the contents of my care packages.\u00a0 How they would wait with anticipation of what would come in the next box.\u00a0 Over the past year, Fish has brought me to tears more than once, by retelling a story of how I changed the lives of the people in that unit and his own family.\u00a0 In chatting with him online today, I was moved to re-share HIS STORY … and my original post.\u00a0 Please be patient enough to read the entire story … for me, for our troops, and for a man who had enough courage to leave his family, friends, and everything he knew … so he could help the US Army to bring freedom to his own country.<\/p>\n

~~~ Original post December 2011 ~~~<\/p>\n

As you all know, I have been \u201cadopting\u201d service members since September 11, 2001.\u00a0 This has included supporting them through their deployments, helping family members cope with the absence of their loved ones, and being a support system to each of them (if need be) when they return.\u00a0 In the past 10 years I have supported 100 troops, this past year being a bit more of a challenge because of my own circumstances.\u00a0 Last week I was communicating with a \u201csoldier\u201d in Iraq, asking him if he would be coming home soon.\u00a0 Early in the conversation, I was corrected with my mistake and was told an amazing story.\u00a0 My friend gave me permission to share it with you \u2026 because I believe this is a story the entire world should read & know.\u00a0 It will dispel any of the naysayers who believe we never should have invaded Iraq.\u00a0 And it makes me so very proud of my friend, Fisher and our troops.\u00a0 Please feel free comment on this post, I know he and many of our troops will be reading your thoughts \u2026 and remember, we each can make a difference \u2026 one person, one breath, one smile, and one life at a time.<\/p>\n

Robin<\/p>\n

“The Sky Angel”<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Ohh I`m sorry Robin! You must have confused me with some other friend of yours!!!\u00a0 But I don`t blame you my friend, because I have\u00a0 never had the chance to introduce myself to you properly!<\/p>\n

I want to tell you my story instead of just telling you what my name is, and I`ll try to be as brief as possible\u2026 My name is Fisher \u2026 or that is the name I decided to be called, when I was asked to choose an American name by Staff Seargant Monley when I got a job with the U.S Army. I cannot tell you my real name because it would put me and my family in danger, so you can call me “Fish”, lol. Its funny because if I would not have met that soldier in 2003 there wouldn\u2019t be a story to be told, and you would never know about me. They say every thing happens for a reason.\u00a0 Maybe the reason why I met that soldier, is to have a story and then tell it to you.\u00a0 And maybe the reason why I`m writing my story to you right now, is so you can tell it to others! I was 23 years old when I quit college and decided to make my country of Iraq a better place,\u00a0 After it was ruined by insurgents, when I decided to join the American Forces to help fight those who wished to destroy what has left of my home, and make harm to my people.\u00a0 Now I know you might be thinking \u2026 I could have just joined the Iraqi Army to do that! but then again\u2026 if I would have you definitely would not be reading this story you are reading right now!\u00a0 I am certain I would have been killed.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a house where I was taught that there is no difference whatsoever between human beings, no matter what their sex or religion might be. After operation Iraq Freedom in 2003 had occurred, I was 17 years old when I met the first American soldier in a friendly football game between local Iraqi’s and young American soldiers. It was funny how me and that soldier could communicate with each other but none of us could speak each other`s\u00a0 language! That poorly interactive conversation between us gave me the urge to learn to speak English.\u00a0 Now as hard as I tried\u2026 I can`t remember his name.\u00a0 Isn’t it funny how people we remember the least (thinking of them but not knowing their names) make the greatest impression on us?\u00a0 So after that football game, I found myself reading Grammar books, and other books of self teaching English. I told myself “the next American Soldier I met again will tell me his stories and I`ll be able to understand!”<\/p>\n

I kept studying and studying until without knowing I realized I was the best student in English subject in my school. Although that wasn’t my intention, but because of that, I got accepted in English department in my college later on.\u00a0 In 2007 insurgency was at its peak, and the insurgents killed every one who they suspected to work, or just spoke with the Americans. They were destroying my town, the place where I grew up in, my home \u2026 and they were killing a lot of people every day.\u00a0 Including old people, women and children, and also many Americans. I felt like I had to do something while I could.\u00a0 I felt that I wasn’t born to sit here and do nothing and watch Iraq tear itself apart, there was a war against terror going on and I wanted to be part of that war.<\/p>\n

I knew English, and it was about choosing sides and I had already chosen mine\u2026 I wanted to be with the good guys and the good guys happened to be Americans. They happened to be the strongest also. So I thought of quitting college and joining the U.S troops, I wanted to help make Iraq a good place again, I wanted to make an ending to this nightmare!\u00a0 So I did leave my college, friends and family and went to work with the U.S Army, I was attached to the infantry.\u00a0 I spent two years working with them, two years with two different units, one year with each unit.\u00a0 when the first one left, I was recommended by them to work with the new one that had just arrived. At the beginning, my first days were full of awkwardness, I thought \u2026 me being the only Iraqi kid with a bunch of American soldiers in one tent, and being from a different background with much concern with the cultural differences … this might have been a bad decision!\u00a0\u00a0 BUT the way they let me blend in and kept on hooking me up made me believe that I was no longer a stranger, but a part of one team!\u00a0 They shared care packages with me from people “back home”.<\/p>\n

It was our lives on the line, but we didn’t care and we always made fun of it all the time. We used to say\u2026 “we could die together in one mortar round if the insurgents get lucky, and that round landed on our tent! or WE can get lucky and that round could land somewhere else so we can live another day and eat another MRE!!!”\u00a0 After two years of being away from my friends and family, and I made a lot of American friends.\u00a0 Iraq kept on getting better and better, and the insurgency faded away eventually as Iraq stood up on its feet. I was recommended by my Team Leader Cpt. Briten to move and live in the states if Iraq stayed a hostile environment for people like me. I have been working on my paper work to do that, but now that Iraq is fine (thanks to the U.S troops ) I can choose whether to stay here with my friends and family, or to finish college and travel to join my brothers in arms again, but this time it`ll be on the land of freedom, and not on a battlefield.<\/p>\n

I quit right after my second team went back home, I went back to college.\u00a0 I\u00a0 learned a lot from my American friends and so did they from me.\u00a0 We shared some good and bad times that I will never forget as long as I live. I hope I didn’t\u00a0 bother you with this story of mine, but the only reason why I wrote it to you so that you can know about those who where influenced, and had their lives transformed by American soldiers, like myself. and tell a story of a TERP who you have never met face to face, but maybe one day will.<\/p>\n

Your friend, Fisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend, Fisher (the Interpreter) at the Sugar Shack … (obviously edited to protect his identity) Last December I wrote a blog about a man named Sam Fisher titled “a case of mistaken identity”.\u00a0 Since that point in time, I have gotten to know Fisher or \u201cFish\u201d as he used to be called by his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,4,21,20,18,16,40,19,17],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supporting-our-heroes","tag-army","tag-donations","tag-hero","tag-heroes","tag-robin-schmidt","tag-soldiers","tag-supporting-our-heroes","tag-the-sky-angel","tag-troops"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alwayssupportourheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}