Tyndall's Heroes: St. Michael and 'service before self'

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Selwyn Jenkins
  • 586th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron commander
(Editor's note:  The following is a commentary courtesy of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing)

I'd like to tell you a story of Staff Sgt. Cesar Flores and how his display of "service before self" on a personal level reached the ears of President Bush.

Sergeant Flores is from Tyndall AFB, Fla., and deployed to the 586th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron at Camp Bucca, Iraq. June 15 -- five days after arriving -- Sergeant Flores' humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device while on patrol while he was the truck commander. His gunner, Airman 1st Class Duane Dunlap, was injured and is currently rehabbing as an outpatient at Brooks Army Medical Center. The driver was uninjured.

Within a day of the attack, the commander of the 16th Military Police Brigade, asked to see Sergeant Flores. He gave Cesar a combat coin. I had let slip that he was a former Army military policeman. When the brigade commander found out that he was also a former airborne MP, it became the return of the prodigal son. He also gave Cesar a St. Michael's medal - patron saint of paratroopers - because Cesar's had been destroyed.

Sergeant Flores was injured but returned to duty within a few days. He told me that he was having some difficulty sleeping so he picked up a book by J.A. Jance, a noted author who has written at least 37 books - mostly detective thrillers. Sergeant Flores picked up one of these page turners and it helped pass the time. He emailed Ms. Jance at her website in order to thank her. Ms. Jance was kind enough to reply, and they began to correspond.

Some time passed, and Ms. Jance wrote Sergeant Flores that she had a bad pathology report and would be having surgery for possible uterine cancer. Sergeant Flores sent her his replacement St. Michael's medal.

On Sept. 29, Ms. Jance was one of four authors to be recognized at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. for her book "Justice Denied." President Bush was in attendance, and Ms. Jance was introduced by the First Lady. Normally, the featured authors read an excerpt from their book, and Mrs. Bush introduced Ms. Jance saying that she would. However, Mrs. Jance had a different message. The following is courtesy of the author and from the Ms. Jance's blog:

I went on to apologize to Mrs. Bush for making a liar out of her. I said I wouldn't be reading from "Justice Denied" and explained exactly why -- that my mother would have killed me if I used the Special Homicide Investigation Team's unfortunate acronym in front of the President of the United States.

Then I went on to explain how two years ago, after years of accumulating literally tons of author copies in the attic of our home in Bellevue, we had put some of those to good use by working with a program at FedEx, one that shipped books off to our troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and to wounded soldiers being treated at Walter Reed Hospital.

I spoke about how some of those books fell into the hands of a wounded soldier at a hospital in Iraq, a guy named Cesar Flores. He had been injured when his HUMMVEE was blown apart by an IED. Cesar has since recovered from his injuries. Still deployed, he's now back at work in Iraq. I told the audience how Cesar and I have corresponded over the past several months. When I mentioned to him that I'd had a bad pathology report and would be having surgery for possible uterine cancer, he generously sent me his St. Michael's medal to give me strength and protection. (St Michael is the patron saint of paratroopers.) The medal he sent me which I wore to the gala, wasn't the one he had been given originally because that one was destroyed by the explosion that literally melted his HUMMVEE. The one I wore that night and the one I'm wearing now is the medal Cesar was awarded after he got out of the hospital and went back to work.

The medal seems to be working well for me, too. My cancer was caught early and I've been told that no further treatment will be necessary other than the surgery I've already had.

I finished my talk by explaining how, on Monday of this week, Bill and I have a ten AM appointment to take books to Walter Reed Hospital where we'll have a chance to visit with some of our nation's heroes while autographing books and CDs for them and thanking them in person for their service.

The President and First Lady were seated at the next table over. After occasions like that, etiquette requires that the two of them leave first. On their way past, President Bush stopped at my table, took my hand and said, "Great speech." That took my breath away.


Me again ...

But that's not the end of the story. Sergeant Flores was recently selected for promotion to technical sergeant. Also, he reenlisted in Iraq on Sept. 22. I'm set to redeploy with Cesar, and I can think of no finer example of someone who epitomized service before self - from patrolling the dangerous road of southern Iraq to sending his St. Michael's medal to a friend in need.