Newswriting + Reporting

“Lest We Forget”

A Story of a Marine and His Journey from Combat      

By Jonie McGhee

The dreams, they never really go away. The anger is kept at bay as the pain of loss begins to lose its grip with the arrival of another day. Forgetting is not an option and moving on has its reward that sometimes hangs on a guilty pin.

The memory of a soldier, who has fought in combat, watched friends die right next to him, got pushed behind enemy lines, was injured and then discharged, is a story worth telling. This story is about Chad Honor (not his real name), a marine and a dedicated defender of the weak.

One day after Memorial Day this year I found myself sitting across the table from an extraordinary young man who has so graciously agreed to tell me about some of his life’s highs and lows.  To allow me to probe into the time that he spent in the U.S. Marine Corps as a sniper and as a tactical member of Breaking Chains – a non profit organization that rescues young women from human trafficking. We switched places in age as I become like an inexperienced child listening to an elder as his eyes reflected a lifetime of violence, pain and evil.

We tried to leave the present story, the main subject at hand and visit the past or the “in the beginning”, but it was difficult to unengaged.  I was able to pull out a few bits of the "earlier years" information, but it seemed that with every new experience revealed another story was waiting to escape.

Cherokee Voices 

Chad was raised on a Cherokee reservation until he was 6 years old.  His mother and father divorced when he was very young. He stated that the Cherokee language was the only language that he heard and spoke as a child along with some broken English.  Chad did not have a lot to say about growing up on the reservation as it seemed that his memory began when he moved to Colorado. At the age of 7 he gained a new step- father and started school.

Attending a public school after having lived on a reservation and knowing very little English became a battle for him in the classroom and everywhere else.  Very early on Chad warred with other students, teachers and an inability to “fit in” causing the onset of an inner struggle that would set the stage for rebellion, anger and years of turbulence.  He soon learned that if he acted out and disrupted the class most of the teachers would just want him to get out and to move on. This was his mode of operation until graduation.

The Key to the Lock Inside of Me 

Chad was angry and ready to fight at any time and he did.  After constantly getting into trouble, in 2003 he found himself as an enlisted U.S. Marine, about a year or so out of high school. He immediately felt relief.  He said as he made a wrist turning gesture “it was like the key to the lock inside of me”. He met others who were like him, who soon became good friends. He used the adjectives “wild, crazy and ruthless.” to describe them.

After basic training and boot camp Chad qualified to be a sniper.  He said that it was just the adrenalin fix that he needed.  His company was already stationed near Baghdad when President Bush gave the initial orders for war.

"Entering into combat in Iraq was surreal" he said, like a dream, but he soon had to wake up and start shooting.  He experienced roadside bombs, RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) and was once thrown 70 feet from a truck that he was riding in by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).  Bullets grazed his head more than once and several of his troop members died right next to him. “I’m really in war now” he remembered thinking. Chad was also assigned to “painting buildings” a term used to describe aiming a laser at a building so that the air forces could easily identify and destroy the target.

Even in the midst of so much violence and death, Chad discovered that he liked being apart of bringing order to those who longed for change and cooperated with the U.S. military.  He said that meeting with the tribal members to discuss making improvements to the villages was very gratifying and many of the villagers showed so much appreciation to them for being there.

Survival on the Other Side 

Then a well known and publicized event occurred that caused his time in the marines to be shortened and traumatic. Chad and his squad members found themselves behind enemy lines and in order to stay alive, they had to stay hidden.  To survive and to remain unseen everything that they ate had to be eaten raw. They ate prairie dogs, fish and drank water from the very unclean Tigris River. Once they were rescued they were immediately sent back home for medical attention.  They were of the first marines to return home, in 2004.

Everything appeared to be medically sound at first, but Chad started to have some internal issues and bleeding. He lost 45 pounds in 2 weeks. Eating raw animals and drinking the contaminated water in Iraq caused a severe problem within his digestive system.  After treatment he became medically discharged after only one year of service.  It was just too soon to stop and there was still so much pent up anger and energy in him.

Chad stayed in touch with several of his combat buddies, in particular his best friend Andy.  Andy wanted to start up a security company and wanted Chad to be a partner with him, but the plans fell through and they parted ways for a while. When they met up again, Andy had become a Christian and his whole life had changed.

Chad was no stranger to the Christian faith since his step father was a very devoted Christian and had raised Chad as apart of his faith since he and Chad’s mother were married, and when you are in combat in war the old say that “there are no atheist in the fox hole” is especially true when you are behind enemy lines.

Even though Andy was a different person in many ways he was still involved in exciting and innovative activities. This time he introduced Chad to a non-profit, Christian organization called “Breaking Chains” that would literally rescue children from sex trafficking in Latin America.

“Judge, Jury and Executioner” 

Andy was training for operation “attack and extract” and Chad jumped on board for a chance to exert physical strength while rescuing innocent victims. The war was on again and this time it was against crime lords and drug cartels.

Chad said that the plan of attack was that they would set up operation in a city and pretended to be American men or “Johns” looking for a night of pleasure.  Once the location of the females was given to them they would show up “fully armed and dangerous”. They were like a SWAT team for victims of sex trafficking who would grab the girls and take them to a safe location for induction into “loving homes where they can receive medical and psychological treatment.”

After so many rescue operations Chad became increasingly aggressive towards the perpetrators. He said seeing the abuse towards the children “wore on him and he became their judge, jury and executioner”.  He wanted to do more than just break in and rescue the girls; he wanted to punish the men that he found hurting them, but having grown in his own faith, he struggled with a God who would forgive these men.  It became a conundrum for him.   

Many of the girls were like empty corpses without any emotion.  One such victim told them that she didn't know how to cry anymore. He said that they rescued a 4 year who was being "groomed" for the business.  Chad said the worst case and moment for him during these rescue raids was when they broke in on a man raping a 7 year old girl. He was beside himself with rage and beat the man up pretty good.  He knew then that it was time to move on.

Thoughts of Peace and Not of Evil…(Jeremiah 29:11)

Chad said that it took him 5 years after he returned home from Iraq to see his first counselor and since that time he has seen many of them. But the one counselor that helped him to break through the anger was a Christian man who allowed him to just be angry, to let him release everything and not try to force him to keep it all hidden.

“We (other veterans) all deal with the PTSD the best way we can. Some of my friends committed suicide. I have 16 anniversary dates of the deaths of my friends that I remember.” 

Chad said that he still has some anger and he dreams about some things from the past, but he is in a good place now.  He is working with his step-father and attending school for his BA and currently has a grade point average of over 3.0, something that he is so proud of given the struggles that he had in grade school.

When asked what his ultimate dream is, he answered “I would love to ride around the country on my bike (he rides a Harley that he built) to help other war veterans” an answer that shows that his heart is still in the place of rescuing others.