Marshall Ramsey

All around Mississippi this morning, our scars are burning. Scars on our bodies, our landscape and our hearts. We watch the devastating scenes from Oklahoma and we pray. We see parents living our worst nightmares — children found dead buried in the rubble of their schools. We mourn as a community is wiped out and its citizens are left with nothing but their lives.  We watch the aftermath of the brutal winds and we see the outpouring of good from total strangers. And it’s all too familiar. In Yazoo City, Ackerman, Smithville, Tupelo, Clinton, South Jackson, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and other places ravaged by Mother Nature’s winds, we feel empathy. And pain.

Tornadoes are a fact of life in Oklahoma and Mississippi. But this one, well this one was different. It was like the tornado that wiped out Smithville — It was God’s eraser. Even the more hardened weather observers are left breathless by its total destruction. And the rest of us are left unnerved.

Bless the people of Moore, Oklahoma. There but for the Grace of God go us.

I looked out at the kids in the Hilton ballroom and thought about the changes they were about to face. “Kids” might not be the right word because even though they were 18, they just had made a decision that was more adult than any decision I’ve ever made: They had signed up for service in the U.S. military.   Fine food, praise from high ranking officers — it was a night to celebrate them and their parents. Soon it would  be radically different — boot camp, military grub and a screaming drill sergeants.  Their lives are about to change forever.

I was co-emceeing (along with the multi-talented  2007 Miss Mississippi Kimberly Morgan).  I sat between Major General Leon Collins, Mississippi’s Adjutant General and Rep. Gregg Harper.  There was several other Generals in the room, included current Southern Miss Athletic Director and retired Major General Jeff Hammond.  And even a couple of Medal of Honor recipients (don’t say “winner,” it is offensive to them and you will be corrected.)

But the night wasn’t about the brass on the stage — it was about the young men and women who had just written a blank check to our country.  One young man was there with his pregnant wife. I thought about how their lives were about to change. As my wife said, “they made a good decision. They will have a tough, but good wife.” My wife’s father was a pilot in the Air Force. She knows first hand.

General Hammond said something during his speech that stuck with me. He studied every combat casualty under his command when he led the surge in Baghdad.  He said that 75% of them were a result of the soldier or Marine not listening to their sergeant.

I hope those young men and a women, those new members of the military listen to their sergeants. And I applaud their decision to give back to a country that has given them so much.