Warrior Needle in a Cultural Haystack

By Rob Curnock

Feb 5, 2016

On August 22, 2015, the gunman burst onto the high-speed train in Europe with a shot and the sound of breaking glass. Startled passengers were shaken out of their normal day-in-the-life activities. Hundreds of innocent people were about to assume the role of fatality numbers in an imminent act of terrorism designed to kill as many people as possible.

Too bad for this particular Islamic radical…he picked the wrong train. He was able to get off one shot wounding one passenger, but that was it. In the blink of an eye, unarmed US Airman Spencer Stone immediately sprang into action and attacked the attacker. With the help of his two friends and a few other men, Stone had disarmed and subdued the would-be killer, while being slashed and bloodied by the now desperate terrorist fighting for his own life.

There is absolutely no doubt that the quick selfless action and even quicker thinking of Stone saved many lives that day. He is a hero in every sense of the word and a rare human being who has affected many lives by his actions.

I wouldn’t know airman Stone from Adam, I’ve never been to France and odds are that, statistically… I’ll probably escape being the victim of terrorism myself …but his actions have personally affected me in a way that he could not have imagined.

I am a conservative Christian American who believes that my beloved traditional USA has been irreparably harmed after many years of Obama and his ilk. Obama’s campaign pledge to ‘transform’ America has been largely accomplished.

With the force of Leftist activist judges, fueled by relentless Democrat legislators and helped by the complicity of his media/entertainment/education allies, Obama has effectively destroyed traditional America.

Never mind his destructive economic policies…his aggressive social agenda has produced a topsy-turvy society with no clearly stated norms other than those determined by the proclamations of ‘approved’ PC demogogues. However, not satisfied with those victories, Obama also turned his sights on the US military. The one entity keeping the world’s vicious wolves at bay.

With a goal of transforming American warriors into some modern day politically correct social utopian experiment, Obama systematically set about diluting our warriors with some bizarre notion of equality, by actively infusing women into elite combat units while allowing homosexuals and transvestites into the overall ranks. Enabled by the complicity of his own handpicked officer corps, he was able to also accomplish his own perverse goals concerning the military as well.

For those of us in the common sense traditional world…this was the end of the line.

I’ll admit it…we lost. The future was indeed bleak and even hope was at an all-time low.

Until that brave airman made his move on that train.

Believe it or not, that isolated act on the other side of the world shook me out of my own doldrums and gave me a new sense of hope. That incredibly heroic act, brought to mind another act that I personally witnessed a lot closer to home recently. In an absurd parallel to the French train, I saw the same profound attributes on display in an incident that at the time seemed so trivial and was quickly almost forgotten.

I was flying to St. Louis and had to change planes at the DFW airport in Dallas. I made my way to a different terminal by way of a crowded rail tram. As the car rumbled along it’s elevated course outside the terminals, I casually surveyed my surroundings. Although burdened by my video equipment I grabbed a pole to keep from tumbling into the people around me. Watching the busy airport slide by through the large windows of the tram car, I eventually turned my attention to the others sharing my brief commute.

It was packed, but I made note of the passengers around me who happened to catch my attention. A businessman standing immediately in front of me ready to bolt out the door as we hit the next stop. A group of attractive young women sitting off to my left chatting amongst themselves. Several other single travelers around me stoically making their ways to their own airport destinations. An airport employee stood off in one corner. She was obviously joining us in getting from one area of the expansive airport to another. Towards the front of the car a uniformed soldier standing under the weight of a large full backpack, he was handsome, clean-cut and looked like someone who was chosen from ‘central’ casting. Near by him there were several more women talking amongst themselves. One of them held the hand of her cute little 6–7 year old girl clutching a doll half as big as her.

I turned my attention back to my own business and looked up at the tram diagram to determine how many more stops I had to go before I could catch my plane. Just then, the loudspeaker interrupted my thoughts with a new announcement that I hadn’t ever heard before. The tram was going out of service…so all passengers were ordered off at the next stop and told to wait for the next car.

I thought “that’s odd, but okay, whatever.”

The tram arrived at the next stop and everyone immediately exited the car and assembled to wait for the next one. I was one of the last off and as such, joined the small crowd forming a semi-circle gathered around the opened tram doors.

I happened to glance back into the now empty tram and suddenly noticed one item left laying on the seat at the front. It was the little girl’s doll. She had evidently left it behind and it would soon be on its way to the maintenance shop, most likely never to be seen again.

I stood there processing the situation, wondering if the women realized that their daughter’s doll was about to disappear. I also realized the doors were about to close and there was about to be one unhappy little girl in our midst. I was debating internally what to do.

All of a sudden just to my left, that soldier with full back-pack suddenly darted out of the crowd and rushed into the car. At that moment off to my right, the DFW worker started to yell out.
“Hey get out of there, it’s…”
Before she could finish her order…the soldier in one smooth motion, even though laboring under his huge back pack…crouched down, grabbed up the doll and smoothly darted back out of the car. The doors immediately closed just as he barely cleared them.

Without any affectation, the soldier handed the doll to the wide-eyed little girl, quietly said “I think this is yours” and headed back into crowd.

That was it.

For all of us in that impromptu assemblage, it took a moment for this little insignificant act of heroism to soak in. The bewildered women standing over the little child looked at their little girl now hugging her rescued dolly, at each other and then over at the soldier merged back in the crowd. They emotionally thanked him and he just nodded. “I’m sure she wanted her doll” he said with a tinge of embarrassment to the folks immediately around him.

Most people in the crowd finally processed the significance of this little act of selfless kindness. Several people suddenly burst into applause and were soon joined by the entire group as the soldier just sheepishly turned red and lowered his head. A few women began wiping their eyes. I had to gulp hard while marveling at what I had just witnessed.

About that time, the next tram arrived and everyone piled in. The new tram continued on its automated stops and the audience members of this little morality play forever went about their separate ways.

In the brief span of less than a minute I had seen a microcosm of what our idealized military is all about. In the grand scheme of things it meant nothing. It was a stupid doll belonging to an insignificant child in a transitory moment.

But while I stood pondering what I was seeing and debating a course of action (if any), that unknown member of our American warrior class sprang into action, completed his mission and moved back into the anonymity of the crowd without any expectation of recognition or reward.

That’s what the military I grew up admiring, is all about. It doesn’t matter how unworthy of a Commander in Chief, is this current occupant of the White House. It doesn’t matter how much the warriors who serve and protect us have had their ranks polluted by social experimentation, courtesy of anti-military PC zealots. It doesn’t matter if missions are confused and incoherent because of woefully misguided political expediency.

When it comes down to it…whether it’s Airman Stone saving possibly hundreds of lives on a European train…or an unknown private saving a grateful little girl’s dolly from oblivion in an airport tram… the military is still made up of individual soldiers. Many have character and are instinctively motivated to serve and protect.

These are the men who truly allow a large segment of America to stay fat, dumb and happy. These are the men upon who’s shoulders the United States will survive one way or another.

It gave me hope. Yes, we may be seeing their numbers dwindle…but the core is still there and not even the corrupt actions of an undeserving leadership will entirely wipe that out.

These brave men give me confidence that all is not yet lost.