The Questionable Marriage/Divorce

This is an ongoing story which I am not actually done with. I will come back and add more to it later as this was done yet another time I could not sleep.

At the end of 2000, I started emailing a woman on AOL personals who was from the town that I was living in. As I worked during the week in another town and only came home on weekends, the email conversations did help. After numerous emails I invited her to a movie night where my roommate and I would rent a few movies and have friends over to watch them. The movie night was a week before Valentine's day in 2001. At this point, she and I started spending time together and I even baby sat for her while she went out with her friends. In April, I moved to Florida and the relationship we just started had now gone long distance. This was definitely a rocky relationship now as she was still having issues with her exhusband and now having to deal with trying to develop a relationship with someone who is 20 hours away.

Just after the boys got out of school (both were like 7 and 9 now) at the beginning of June, she brought them out to Florida to go to Universal Studios. This is when she informed me that their father had disappeared and has quit paying child support. It was also at this point when one night we were engaging in physical activity when I noticed that she did not seem to be into it. I asked her what was the matter and this was the time when she told me that she was thinking about her ex. Unfortunately, that was a scar that I hold to this day. Of course, she claims she never stated anything like that to this day. She also states that she never told me that she felt guilty about taking the boys away from their father which was another one of those conversational pieces back in June 2001. Anyway, the short visit ended in both of us questioning what we were going to do.

We continued to talk and argue as it was tough. Once I got a job, we started planning for me to visit. Finally, I was able to visit in October 2001 and we went to Ren Fest there in Plantersville. Just before my visit, she expressed that she did not know how she was going to make it without the child support. So, we talked it over and I called in a favor with a buddy of mine to get me a job with the company he was working for. I moved back here and in with her and her boys.

At first, we were trying to keep the living arrangements quiet from her parents, but with all of the troubles we had, it was very difficult to keep quiet. Both of her boys were quite spoiled and usually got things there way. When they would throw temper tantrums and yell at her, it would usually upset me enough for me to say something to them. One night I seem to have made the ultimate mistake in her eyes and told the oldest one that I am not in the relationship with their mother to be with them. She immediately took that as I did not want anything to do with her children and has brought that up numerous times throughout the years and a whole lot during the divorce. We will get to the divorce later.

After living with her and the boys for about 4 month's, I made the leap to try and make things better. We were lacking communication and intimacy. When I attempted to talk to her, she explained that she had fears of me leaving. So in an attempt to remedy that, I asked her to marry me in February and she said, yes.

Things continued on as normal with the lack of intimacy between her and I along with the friction between the behavior of the boys, her lack of disciplining them, and the frustrations of them throwing their fits. I completely felt like an outsider and hoped that the marriage would change things.

In Dec 2002, we all flew to Las Vegas where she and I got married. So, we ended up not having a honeymoon but a family vacation.

At the beginning of 2003, I started going to school online since I was working some pretty flexible hours. By the time summer hit, the company I was working for laid me off and she graduated from Texas A&M and got her secondary teaching certification. Since I was going to school online, she accepted an offer with Sweeny High School and we moved to south Texas.

She seemed to enjoy teaching, but wasn't too happy with where she worked. The boys were also quite unhappy as their grades plummited along with started having some social issues with the other students. In the summer of 2004, we moved out of the Brazoria area and into Lake Jackson. She was then commuting with both boys between Lake Jackson and Sweeny each day while I was attempting to finish up school.

After being in Lake Jackson, we had a huge fight as I have been looking for work since we moved into the area back in the summer of 2003. It was now fall of 2004, and all I have to show for it was mounting student loans. We talked for quite sometime about what are plans were and one that I presented, I thought we agreed upon. As I graduated, I would apply for my direct commission in the Army and go back active duty military. However, that seemed to be yet another miscommunication between the two of us.

I started my direct commission packet, found a reserve unit with a signal officer vacancy, and joined the unit in Oct 2004. This was not what she wanted and yet again we were fighting. Between November 2004 and Janurary 2004, I went for my training. Upon returning from my training, I was employed at the unit everyday until I was activated to be deployed in April 2005.

Between April 2005 until the middle of June 2006, I found myself playing soldier in Afghanistan and she went back to Texas A&M for her master's degree. While I was in Afghanistan, I tried to communicate as much as I could but it was not an easy task. Many times when I would call home, she and I would end up in an argument about something. I called home on Thanksgiving 2005 only to have her answer the phone crying with yelling going on in the background. It was another one of those situations where the youngest was throwing a temper tantrum and she was not handling it. She was at her sister's house with the rest of her family there also. All of this seemed to be too much and she could not keep it together. I am one of those guys who cannot take it when a woman cries and I was having difficulty hearing her over the phone. We cut the call short and it bugged me for weeks.

Another time that caught me was when I called home to let her know about the time I would be coming home. I wanted to plan something where she and I could actually take a vacation together as just the two of us. It was about this time that she informed me that she was having a hysterectomy about the same time I was coming home and she would have to recover first. This news floored me! She had told me before that she wanted to have my baby and asked me what I would do if she ever got pregnant. I explained that I would be happy, but now she is telling me that she made the decision not to have anymore kids. This news floored me and made me very depressed for a very long time. I don't know if it would have been any different if she would have talk things over with me first, but I felt as if the bottom fell out. I felt that there was no hope for us at all now.

Also while I was away, she petitioned the court to have the boy's father parental rights removed as he disappeared back in 2001 with it now being 2006 and him owing over $20,000 in unpaid child support. I was aware of her doing this as she did not want his family members to petition the court for visitation and cause more problems.

Shortly after arriving home, she asked me if I wanted to adopt her children. I was a little skeptical, but figured this would be a good way to finally become a part of the family. All of this time, I was the outsider and hoped this might actually help develop us some. Less than a month of being home, she brought the boys and myself to the courthouse in Waco, TX where her brother had asked a judge there for a favor of hearing the adoption case. We went into the judges chambers and he asked me if I wanted to adopt the boys and I said yes. He signed the papers and that was it. I was in awe how quickly that process took. I was sure there were other things that went along with it, but didn't question things since she said from day one that she would go after me for child support as I was looked upon as the children's provider as soon as I moved in with her.

This is when all hell breaks loose between us. Between July 2006 and September 2007, the boys were in prime condition for me to return home from Afghanistan, I was now their father by adoption, and I felt that I had a right to help parent the children now. This was all a big mistake as it became very clear to me that was not the case. I was not the father and had no right to try and help parent. With her and my parenting ideas so contrast, we were at odds constantly. She beleived that she should provide for their every wants if we could, and I believed that they should earn what they wanted in order to take pride in it whenever they did get it. I wanted them to do chores, she was okay with them just watching television all the time. So, constantly the boys and I were in conflict which had her and I in conflict. This left the levels of intimacy out the window.

I left in October 2007 and returned to Afghanistan. This time I made the mistake of telling her that I was not going to come home if things did not change. I could not come home to a situation as I did the first time. Obviously, nothing changed and I returned home just before Halloween 2008. By Thanksgiving, I had numerous alteracations with both boys. It wasn't until the oldest got caught in yet another lie and got into another situation of him yelling. He was told to go to his room and instead, did his temper tantrum all over the place with her following him around. This was yet another time where he literally got in my face and dared me to harm him physically with the old, "Make me!" With her and I fighting most of the night, we both finally got some sleep with me getting up early the next morning and heading into work. After forgetting something where I had to go home to get it, I come home to the oldest laying on the couch watching television. At this time, the boy is already failing in multiple subjects at school and was just sent to his room the night before until he could calm down and talk about what had happened the night before. When I asked her what is going on, she informed me that she made the decision to let him stay home and watch television because he was sick. I told her that if he was sick, he should be in bed and he shouldn't be watching televison because of his grades along with the issue of the night before we needed to deal with. She did not like that answer.

I left and went back to work. Upon arriving home that evening, I moved out of the main house area and into the back area. She came back there to talk to me for long periods of time and I explained that unless things get fixed, I couldn't do it. It was at that point she realized we were splitting up.

It was the first week of December that she and I sat down and divided the bills. I wanted to be fair and ended up taking more bills than I could afford. This was the begining of a very long suffering. Before my suffering, I had the ability to pilfer through the kitchen which she did keep food around to going for days without really eating something. Between Dec 2008 and April 2009, I continued to pay her over $1000, pay 1/2 utilities, and other bills leaving me with only about $45 per month to eat on. In middle of December she became very bitter and verbally abusive to me along with both boys. I usually kept my mouth shut and just went to hide in my bedroom in the very back of the house.

Between December 2008 and April 2009, I spent most of my evenings just crying as I could not sleep from the nightmares of war and the feeling of completely being lost, no hope, and no one having a care. I had problems focusing at work. The lack of sleep had me on edge all the time along with the PTSD which I was diagnosed with back in the beginning of 2006. In the middle of December 2008, she and I went to marriage counseling where it seemed to be an hour of her yelling at me because she was so angry with me. Between December 2008 and April 2009 in the marriage counseling sessions, I learned that I have been a very mean and cruel man to her and her children from day 1. I only wanted her for sex. I never wanted her kids and were constantly cruel to them. I was verbally and mentally abusive. I never attempted to talk to her about how I was feeling and a whole slew of other things. Of course, I did not agree with anything she said. I did admit that I felt that I was never a part of the family, only there as a roommate to help with bills, tired of the constant ingoring of intamacy since the only intimacy we did seem to have came in periods of once every 3 to 6 month periods when I was around, constantly told to get away when attempting to show public display of affection to her, and all of this ended up having me talking to others over the internet instead of talking to people around me. This is when she started telling me that I was having an affair too. From the time that I moved in with her, I never did anything alone except go to work or come home. When I talked to others on the internet, I would do so on the couch next to her or in the same room as I was not hiding much. Even after we separated, I was either at work or at home in my room.

In April, the marriage counslor asked us if we talk any outside of the sessions. Of course the answer to that was a resounding no since anytime I saw her, she would be pissed off at me. If I said anything to her, she would start gripping at me about something, so I avoided her. It seemed that she did the same to me. It was at this time that the marriage counselor explained that she would like to at least help us figure out a division of property in order to end the marriage since she could not help us save the marriage. She asked my wife what she would accept to just leave the marriage and she explained that she wanted full child support, for me to continue to pay for her car, and started to continue when I said that will not happen as I could not afford those alone and didn't think it was right to ask. She never accepted me as the children's parent. The boys never accepted me as a parent. So, I was not expecting to ever recieve visitation, so why should I pay full child support. As for the car, I had already paid the car note for 2 years at $450 per month until I found out earlier in April that her ex husband (the one that disappeared in 2001 and owed over $20,000 in back child support in 2006) was back in the picture. Not only that, but she was having him come over to the house while I was there.

Towards the end of April, I asked her to take a walk and talk with me. During that walk, I explained that we had problems, but I still did not want things to end up in a divorce. She informed me that it was too late for that as she already filed with an attorney. I then asked how things were going with her and the boys. Her answer to me was, "if he knew I was talking to you, he would be mad at me". My first though was that she was talking about her ex who it seems was now around. And this was the end of our conversations and the divorce started.

As soon as the income tax return came in, I hired an attorney that was referred to me by a working collegue. Mr. Larry Catlin was supposed to be a very good divorce lawyer and when talking with him, he seemed to be quite civilized as I was not wanting to make this a bad divorce. I had seen a bad divorce with my mom and dad and I did not want to put the boys through that. Unfortunately, my wife hired Mr. Michael D. Holt who is a personal injury lawyer. With Mr. Holt, I quickly realized that he was one of those who would do anything he could to get the most for his client to include lie to the judge and allow his client to lie to the judge. It did not help that Mr. Catlin was not very good at remembering things about the case to help him make a proper fight. This lack of memory he had ended up costing me quite a bit of money as he would do things such as actually file a petition for divorce after he was already told one was filed. Or the time he made a calculation error on the child support costing me over $200 more a month than I should have been paying only to charge me for his time and the court fees for changing the court order which he made the calculation error on in the first place. Then you add in that she was a teacher and the court session was in June when she was not working, her lawyer actually got her spousal maintenance too. When we did go back into court in August to fix the child support calculation error, he did not argue the spousal maintenance even though I asked for it as she now had a job and making close to $10,000 more than me per year. Instead, her lawyer attempted to force me to not only continue to pay for her full coverage auto insurance but to also add the oldest to my auto insurance policy. Luckily, another lawyer that was in the court room informed the judge that all she had to do was to call up USAA and ask them to open up her own policy. Something that she was supposed to do back in December 2008 when we were separating the bills. Because the other lawyer stepped in, the judge said for her to get her own policy and have the boy added to hers if she wanted him to drive.

After the August 2009 court session, she started telling me that I was instructed by the judge to add him to my insurance which I attempted to explain to her that is not what happened as I was there in the court when she was not. She explained to me that her lawyer informed her that I had to add him even after I explained that she was supposed to call USAA and get her own policy and add him. Of course she did not listen and continued to remain on my policy and let the boy drive without insurance. In November 2009, the boy got involved in a vehicle accident in which the insurance refused to pay. They also issued me a notice that I would be canceled without the option of renewal if the boy did not get on an insurance policy within 30 days. This is also the time that she filed for contempt of court charges on me for lack of paying all of the uninsured medical expenses and her the spousal maintenance for September, October, and now November. Between November and February, I could not get Mr. Catlin to call me back or answer any messages of mine. Instead, I would get a bill which listed each message and a charge as if he took time out for my messages.

In Feburary 2010, I went into court by myself. Mr. Catlin refused to show as all he had done for the past 4 months was send me bills. Since the charges of contempt of court could carry jail time, the judge appointed me Channa Borman as my lawyer. When attempting to get with Ms. Borman, it seemed that she was already overwhelmed and Ms. Cherry Kay Wolf. I then spent time explaining the case to her and we went to court. This is when I found out that if someone sends mail through the postal system and they do not receive it back, then it is presumed by the court that the person received the mail. It was testified that my ex sent me numerous letters by first class mail with receipts in them from medical visits of the boys. I did receive some of those receipts and proclaimed that they did not provide any information as they were just receipts for an amount. They did not explain what they were for nor did she provide me with any information what they were for. Since she was making all of the claims from the insurance, they were sending the insurance documentation to her and she claimed that insurance documentation was between me and the insurance company claiming that she did not receive anything even though it was her address they had listed. The spousal maintenance was not paid to her as she now had a job in which the definition of spousal maintenance and it being awarded for her not having a job, I was under the impression I did not have to pay any longer. It was explained to me that I was in contempt of the court for both charges and that I now also have to pay her attorney fees toward this contempt of charges which he claimed to be $1,500.

Before we went to court again, my lawyer asked the judge to mandate mediation. The mediation was a joke. My ex explained that she wanted $15,000 in cash, all of the retirements, and a few other things. My lawyer was in awe at the demands. We asked for the other party to consider some things as we found their offer unacceptable. Instead of making their offer more appealing, they left.

The final court date for the divorce was scheduled for July 2010. In July 2010, something came up for the judge and he postponed the case again. It was rescheduled for August 2010. At that time, the judge granted a probationary custody. He ordered us to do 3 months of weekly counseling sessions between myself and both boys and then it progressed to another 3 months of limited visits with counseling determined by the counselor and if all went well, standard custody. I finally found a counselor who was willing to work with the court's guidelines and was a part of the same firm as the one my lawyer suggested. Unfortuantely, she could not get us in until September. So in September we started going to sessions. It seemed that every other week something was coming up where she had a problem ensuring that the boys would make it to the counseling session. One weekend she was supposed to go out of town for work when it turned out she had plans with her current boyfriend which she actually brought to the session. After a month of these sessions her frequency of canceling the sessions went even further. For the whole month of October we did not go to one session. Then in November, we went back into court to finalize the divorce. By this time, I was now like 3 months behind on child support due to my paycheck once again disappearing as soon as it hit my bank account because of floating bills for so long. Of course, she immediately brought this up to the judge while we were claiming her being in contempt for not following the set forth visitation with counseling sessions. The judge stated he was so tired of this case and told us that "someone was going to jail unless we came up with a deal now".

This is when my ex came to me stating that I now owed over $3,500 in back child support, unpaid medical insurance, back spousal maintenance, and attorneys fees that I had to pay them now. This was when I handed her my credit report which went from 745 in July down to 525 due to overdue bills which I was paying with that. Of course, that did not matter to her and said she would settle for a withholding order payment plan of $175 per month for all previous due. She then explained that the kids made it a point not to want to go to counseling anymore because they had things coming up which they did not want to miss. Because of that she wanted to enforce the standard visitation. So, I accepted as I did not have any option at the time. When I left the court after, I was under the impression that the lawyers would draw up the papers and present them for correctness. I expressed to my lawyer that I wanted to ensure the correctness as Mr. Holt already made his own corrections on the Temporary Court Orders which Mr. Catlin did not catch and I don't trust him because of that. She informed me that her office would get with me when the orders were all typed up. Unfortunately, I never did get to check them for correctness.

In November 2010, I went to get both the boys to spend the weekend with me. Very difficult as they live an hour and 15 min away and gas is not cheap. The oldest stayed the night with me and left early in the morning on Saturday. The youngest stayed with me until I took him home on Sunday.

In December, I called them and informed them I had no way of going to get them. I had no vehicle and no money. They stated they understood. At the end of December, the oldest one and the mother got into an altercation and he came to live with me.

This was a big issue as he expected me to provide for him. Unfortunately, I did not have enough to provide for myself and his mother refused to return any of the child support which I felt at the time I should not have had to pay since she had one child and I had one child. That would have made things so much easier for me and the oldest. She refused to talk about it and I then attempted to go through the Attorney General. They informed me that the boy had to be with me for 6 months before I could ask for the child custody order to be changed and then I could change the child support order.

It was during this time that I started having all kinds of issues with the Office of Attorney General. I attempted to check on my case constantly only to find out there were mistakes after mistake. First issue I had was them reporting me as being >6 month late on child support in the amount over $6,000. This was a crazy amount as the most child support and unpaid insurance at the time was $3,500. The court system submitted a withholding order for the unpaid child support and unpaid medical insurance along with attorney fees. Since the Attorney General cannot legally collect for attorney fees from a contempt of court charge (nothing to do with child support), they lumped it all in as child support. And claimed that since I owed money, it was more than 6 months late even though, the payments were being taken out of my paycheck each month automatically.

The second issue was them losing my file. Sometime in Feburary, the local office did an investigation and wiped my information from the child support file. They then mixed my information with her first ex husband and sent the file to Waco, TX. This is also the time that they started reporting his current addresses along with his debts to my credit file which really killed my credit. The worse thing about this was the Office of Attorney General wanted me to prove that I did not owe the $23,000 before they would quit reporting it. Which it took them up until June to quit reporting that debt and the others as mine.

After 6 months, I made the request to the Attorney General again asking for the custody order to be changed, the support order to be changed and for it to be back dated in order to help pay some of the debts incurred back. This is when I was informed that the case was marked as family violence case and it would have to go back to court. They further explained to me that would likely do no good since by that time the boy already graduated and turned 18 meaning that it would be a waste of my time.

In April 2011, I attempted to again get a copy of the court transcripts and the final decree. I was able to get the final decree only to be surprised. The reason I did not get to proof read the orders was because Mr. Holt presented them to the judge for signature that same day, November 12th, 2010. And of course, they were not correctly corresponding what was stated in the court room.

"Help him find God"

In my dream last night, I went out with some people to dinner. After the dinner, we went into the bar portion with a dance floor. When most of the girls were on the floor dancing, I had a brief phone call to a fellow at work. He called to tell me "Do you remember what we talked about the other day? The Sound of Music? It is on my phone. He then hung up." I thought he got it on ring tone. When I came back to sit down to wait for the others to get off the dance floor, some people started talking to me about my phone call. I don't remember much else about the phone call, but they say they overheard me mention their names. I then stated yeah, I mentioned them. They then informed me that they were both dentist and have a practice. They wanted to know if that was what I was talking about. I stated that my company was looking at their practice to recommend for dentistry for the PPO. And that was all I remember of that portion before being woke up by my wife.


Waking up next to my wife (in real life, the girl I woke up to was my first wife, Leah). We were both naked and lightly touching one another. You know stirring up things without really doing anything. Then my cell phone rang. The phone acted as if it were an answering machine taking a voicemail from the person on the other end and playing the message out loud. However, I couldn't seem to hear it but my wife could. She asked me something, and I just said they must be mistaken. A few moments later, I heard people outside, so I jumped up, threw something on and stuck my head out the door. It was two girls who said they were sorry for bothering me, placed a key on the bricks a few feet from the door and left. I crawled back into bed and this time, my wife was no longer really in the mood, so we cuddled and I started to give her a massage. She asked what was going on but all I could say is "I don't really know what all that was about."

If all that wasn't strange, this is when it got weird. All of a suddent, there were people coming to the door again, so I got up to go see what it was. The two girls were back and they both brought guys with them. As their way to the door, they walked by the key picking it up. I asked what was going on, and they said that I had invited them to use my place the night before and gave them a key. At this time, my wife came to the door and I started to introduce them. I couldn't seem to remember my wife's name and wanted to say it started with a C for some reason. So, I started the introductions by looking at the two girls stating "I know these two girls from last night, but I don't know the guys." I then motioned back to my wife and introduce her to the new people "This is my girlfriend." And then even more people showed up and starting coming into the house which I would really describe as a one bedroom apartment with a kitchen.

As my "girlfriend"/wife played it well and started letting people in, she excused herself to go change. I was freaking out attempting to figure out what the heck was going on. After a few momemts, I met my wife in the hallway. I started to explain to her that I truly had no idea what was going on. Some of the people I did remember from the night before, but someone must have put something in my drink as I don't remember anything after the dinner. I also tried to tell her that I was sorry for introducing her as my girlfriend and not my wife. I really don't know why I did that. She just smiled and gave me a hug. As we were hugging, an older lady walked in looking to use the bathroom. I introduced her as my "adopted" mom and not my first "adopted" mom since Mrs. Strain was my first "adopted" mom. She then excused herself to the bathroom which my wife and I hugged again. As she was closing the door to the bathroom, she told my wife that she should get me some new shoes and help me find God. It was at this time that I woke up.

I thought to myself that I really do need a new pair of tennis shoes since the ones I have are breaking apart. My next thought was about the "help him find God". I looked at the clock and noticed it was 10:30 am on Sunday. At 11:00 am services start at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fumc-sunday-morning-services

The next thought that came into my head is the actual missing of my first wife, Leah. I still feel bad about just letting that go and not really try to fix the problems. I believe that guilt is why I spent way too much trying to "fix" my relationship with my second wife. From the beginning of that one, I did not pay attention to the signs which screamed she was not really committed. Won't spend years attempting to fix something like that again.

Honestly, I take this dream as a good one. This is like the first dream in a VERY long time that didn't involve me in battle or in a situation with my ex-wife or adopted kids.

SGT Hernandez and Civilian Ambulance Ride

One of my reoccuring memories from Afghanistan is the time SGT Hernandez scared the crap out of me in the hallway of the Qalat PRT barracks area.

One night while in Qalat, I was headed back to my room after taking a shower. As I was nearing my room, I saw a dark figure coming towards me. That figure was holding his neck and walking slow. My first notion was that it was one of the Afghan security forces we had on the compound who was in a restricted area, so I was about to release a burst of anger in order to get him back to his area in a manner where he would not come back in the restricted area for a while. Then I realized that the figure walking towards me was one of my teammembers and his uniform was dark because he was completely covered with blood. Dropping all of my gear, grabbing him and yelling for help, people came out of their areas to immediately assist. We were able to get him to the medical facility where SSG Solis attempted to keep him concious. He had lost a lot of blood and it was becoming much more difficult to keep him concious. SSG Solis informed us that we must get him to the surgeons at FOB Laghman which was only about 2.5 kilometers away. I ran and moved the civilian ambulance to the front of the medic station and SSG Moore and SSG Solis loaded SGT Hernandez into the minivan with lights on it. Due to the time limitation we had on us, we were unable to wait for an escort, or even get our own body armor, weapons, or even our proper uniform on. We started heading out the front gate of the Qalat PRT informing our remaining team members to radio ahead to FOB Laghman and let them know that we were headed their way with an emergency. With me driving the civilian ambulance frantically over the dirt bumpy roads, the individuals in the back of the ambulance kept reminding me to hurry up, but keep it slow so that hitting the bumps weren't so rough.

As we were coming to FOB Laghman, I had the ambulance emergency lights flashing which seem to confuse the Afghan National Army soldiers who were guarding the outter parameter of FOB Laghman. By the time we got close enough to them, I had the window down, my head out of the window screaming we had serious wounded and we are coming in for them to raise the gate. I am glad that my screaming in English was enough to have them question themselves of shooting first, but they did pause us for a bit before opening the gate. I then drove through the serpantine maze rather quickly and the American forces there already had the gate open and yelled that they were waiting for us at the medical center. Arriving at the medical center, we were greeted by about 4 people whom I attempted to give them an account of what happened. It was unclear at this time why SGT Hernandez was bleeding all over the place from his neck but it was bad.

Through the discussions, it was first informed to the medical team that we were bringing in a prisoner who was wounded from one of our previous gunfights that had taken a turn for the worst. Since SGT Hernandez was unable to speak, was slender, dark skinned, and the uniform he arrived with was cut off as it was bload soaked, their first instincts too were that he was a local national and not an American soldier.

We did save him that night, but it was one of those situations where bravery and stupidity mixed. One of those events in your life where you react before you think.