Humanitarian mission to Haiti can be healing for battle scared

What we have been witnessing reported coming out of Haiti has been horrifying at times when you see people desperate for food and water as well as medical attention, taking to the streets with machetes. As bad as those images are, the people are also showing great compassion for others even with their own pain to carry.

We've seen this when they lost members of their own families but still manage to climb onto the rubble piles using their bare hands to save someone else. They carry the bodies of strangers to the streets and cover them out of respect. Hundreds of thousands of people lost everything but retained their compassion.

Strangers from other nations rush in supplies, search and rescue teams, hanging onto hope they will reach yet one more in time to save their lives. People donated from around the world simply because they felt compassion.

And then we have the military, returned from combat, now deploying on humanitarian missions.

82nd Airborne troops headed to Haiti for quake aid
Thu Jan 14, 8:55 am ET
WASHINGTON – More U.S. forces are getting under way as the military ramps up its mission to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

An advance group of a little over 100 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division will leave Fort Bragg in North Carolina Thursday. The Army says the group will find locations to set up tents and other essentials in preparation for the arrival of another several hundred from the division on Friday.

The soldiers come on top of some 2,200 Marines also on their way as the military prepares to help with security, search and rescue and the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

More than a half dozen U.S. military ships also are expected to help, with the largest, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, also arriving Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_haiti_troops

22nd MEU Marines Depart Camp Lejeune for Haiti Relief Operations
22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit Public Affairs
Story by Master Sgt. Keith Milks
Date: 01.15.2010
Posted: 01.15.2010 10:31

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Less than six weeks after returning home from a seven month deployment to the European and Central Command areas of operation, the Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit found themselves once again bidding farewell to family and friends.

On Jan. 13, less than a day after a devestating earthquake ravaged the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, the 22nd MEU was ordered to prepare for deployment to head to Haiti to support President Barack Obama's pledge of assisting the Haitian people. By the 15th, the embarkation of personnel, vehicles and equipment was in full swing.

According to Capt. Clark Carpenter, spokesman for the 22nd MEU, the Marines expect the deployment to last at least 30 days, but emphasized that the Marines will remain in Haiti until such time as their service is no longer needed.
read more here
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=43928

There are others deploying as well after having been involved with some of the worst conditions man can inflict on man, they are deploying with their hearts filled and heavy.

When you talk to any serviceman or woman trying to heal after combat, they will say how healing it was to try and help someone else. Their level of compassion so great, that even with their own pain they find healing by doing something for someone else.

The suffering in Haiti will grieve their hearts and trouble their minds but after they will know they made a difference in the lives of Haitians, other humans in need of help.

When you consider the motivating factor they have to serve this country, that sense of defending and helping will be fed as they work to restore services necessary for survival and in turn, feed that within them necessary to restore the inner peace of doing for someone else. As they help strangers, they will be helping themselves to heal.