This past Friday began as a struggle for me. Quite honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to my normal Saturday of college football, or anything else, for that matter. It had nothing to do with my Georgia Bulldogs having a bye week, or even the fact that they had slipped in the polls after the loss to Alabama. None of that seemed to matter because Friday was October 3rd.

It was the anniversary of a day that I wish had never dawned, and one that I am certain I shall never forget. The news report simply said that on October 3, 2005, a Marine had been killed in Karabaliah, Iraq, the first to die in Operation Iron Fist. That Marine was Corporal John Stalvey, with the Third Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, Second Marine Division.

I was in an electronics store in Atlanta when the call came that morning and broke my heart. I put my face in my hands and wept. John Stalvey was not just another picture on the evening news of some mother’s son who had died in a far-away land.

This one hit home in a personal way.

I learned something that day—behind every cold statistic of war there is a broken and weeping family, an empty room, a host of hurting friends, and a story. I was a part of his story.

I taught John history in high school, but our friendship went beyond the normal teacher-student relationship. He became a dear friend of our family, and called me once from Afghanistan to ask some advice and to thank me for the impact I had on his life.

If only he knew it was he who impacted me.

John was an all-American type kid. He was “Mr. Hustle” in every sport he participated in, and could have been a hard-nose defensive back had he chosen to go to college, but to no one's surprise John joined the Marines.

Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” John Stalvey was never the type to do nothing.

The decisions to wage war belong to the politicians, but the honor belongs to the soldiers—those actually engaged in the struggle of the battlefield. They are the real heroes. It has always been the soldier who made the greatest sacrifice for our freedom.

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