Readers Digest recently asked…”What makes America great?” Since our goal here at Celebrate America is to do just that we wanted to share with you just one of the many examples they’ve found. These stories showed me that despite all the doom and gloom that the media wants us to buy today that our country’s strength, spirit and goodness continues to impact lives around the world through amazing people like Jerry Grodin.
He is a 52-year-old husband and father of three who traded in his private cardiology practice in Dallas, TX for an Army medic tent in the Middle East. Jerry’s family and friends were puzzled. But for Jerry, it was always in the cards. He’d wanted to enlist since he was a boy, inspired by his grandfather, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who took in soldiers during World War II, and his father, who fought in that war. Jerry went ont o say…
I grew up believing that there is no purer citizen than the citizen soldier. You have to do something bigger than yourself.
Medical school had kept him out of Vietnam, as had his young children during the Gulf War. Then came 9/11. Jerry said…
I thought, If I don’t do this now, I’m never going to do it.
In Iraq, over three tours of duty, he has treated mass casualties as bombs exploded nearby. He has saved countless limbs, hearts, and lives in 36-hour shifts. Jerry explains what his family thinks…
If my grandfather knew how I had served my country, he would be filled with pride and love,” Grodin says. “Back home since January, he knows his father and grandfather were right. The people I served with, made me a better person.
