A Collection of Life Stories for Those Who Believe

(And Especially for Those Who Don’t)

By Sandy Samples-Jones

SARGE

“HARDCORE SOLDIER/SOFTHEARTED MAN”

He was a hard man…a rough childhood and the Korean war had molded him that way. He loved the Army and he loved his wife. Now me and him….I just don’t know. Oh, I loved my daddy, but boy he was very strict and sometimes, after a few too many beers, was just darn right mean. Not to Mom or anyone else. Seems, being the only child for 15 years, I was the one who drew the short straw on that deal. And, frankly, I was scared to death of him. He could look at me a certain way and I would have rather had a whupping! So, I hightailed it out of there when I was 16 and married a GI (go figure) and played house for 3 years and got my heart broke. But that’s another story.

As a military family, we were never in one place for long…Germany, Greece and Korea were just a few of the ports of call. 15 years after I came along, Dad and Mom were surprised by the birth of a baby boy and then three years later another baby boy. And Daddy idolized those boys. He and I, though, were still like oil and water. Then Daddy got his last assignment before retiring from the service….and it changed him in ways I didn’t understand until my own salvation day. He got stationed in Midland, TX and was appointed Survival Assistance Officer for all of West Texas. This job, I think one of the roughest in the military, was notifying next of kin of the combat deaths of their loved ones in Viet Nam. As I mentioned before, my Dad was a gung-ho soldier and he took his work dead seriously. It turned out, he was very good at this particular job which entailed not only breaking the bad news, but practically living with the families until the body came in and the funeral was complete and the insurance papers taken care of. He was a rock these grief stricken families could depend on and turn to for anything. And after two years and 116 funerals his time was done in the Army. He lived another 3 years and then had a massive coronary at the age of 46 and died of a big old broken heart. I will always believe this. And almost every one of those families came to San Antonio to see him off…his funeral procession was almost a mile long.

But you see, the moral of this story, is that God is good all the time. He took this hardcore soldier and put him where he would have to learn what true love is all about. For him, it was about finding that softhearted man inside and realizing that it was there all along and asking for forgiveness for not realizing it a whole lot sooner. The last two years of his life, he and I became so close and I thank God for that blessing every day. He still didn‘t know how to “treat“ a daughter…but God he tried hard. I remember being in the hospital when I was 22. I had just had a hysterectomy due to a lengthy illness and was totally devastated because I couldn‘t have children…something I had dreamed of for so long. And here comes Daddy….he didn‘t come bearing flowers or candy…no, he came in with two new pair of loafers he had bought me at Payless Shoestore. But, boy I sure cherished those shoes. I saw a quote by Maya Angelou here recently that pretty well summed up God’s lesson he taught my Daddy. It said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And a lot of folks think Sgt. Bruce E. Thomas, US ARMY did OK in that department!