A/N: This chapter again refers to the CM episode The Fallen. Same rights apply.
Chapter 11
Zachary Hotchner
Sociology 1134_3
How a Regular Person Can Change a Life
There are many ways a regular person can change a life. It's helping a woman change a tire in the pouring rain with a young child buckled into a car seat in the back seat of the vehicle. Or helping an older man get his groceries in his car at the market. It's called kindness. And I'm a firm believer that what you do gets paid forward. Is that a game changer? Probably not; but those random acts of kindness do carry humanity forward. Even giving a down and out man a cup of coffee and a donut.
Yet, this past weekend, I witnessed real game changers. The kind you are challenging us about.
Let me tell you a story.
It starts in the jungles of Vietnam in the late stages of the war. A new, freshly minted Marine Private, never having been in combat, far less out of the US, has just joined the platoon. A young Marine PFC gets pinned down with VC soldiers rapidly approaching him. The platoon Sergeant orders the Private to cover the PFC. When the VC approach, with the PFC trying frantically to re-load his M-16, the platoon Sergeant saves the PFC's life, taking out the first attacker. When another VC soldier silently stalks up to kill the Sergeant, the Marine training of the green Private kicks in. He kills the second and two more, then nodding to the platoon sergeant. The sergeant, grabbing the PFC nods his appreciation at the rookie, as does the PFC. The platoon, intact, lives on.
Later in the day, the young Private is on point. The platoon Sergeant feels he's earned it. But being a bit aggressive, and not knowing the VC and their tactics, the Private walks into a booby-trapped mine field. Move his Marine-booted foot, and his family is getting a knock on the door with a Marine officer accompanied by the parish priest.
The platoon Sergeant, seeing the situation, formalizes a solution and orders the young Private to follow it. They do their best to get out of harm's way, but the young Private is injured and evacuated out.
But there is one thing the young Private does not know, having been knocked unconscious by the blast. But the Sergeant does.
Yet, because the war in Vietnam is so unpopular in the States, the Defense Department decides they need a medal recipient to parade around for PR. The real hero remains anonymous.
This is a true story. The Sergeant is Harrison Scott, from the tough side of Trenton, New Jersey, trying to find a new life from the streets. The PFC is Anthony Hernandez of Waco, Texas, trying to find his piece of the American dream. And the Private is David Rossi, a fourth-generation Italian-American, looking to use the GI Bill to get into college.
You see, just as Sergeant Scott was trying to pull Private Rossi into a near-by ditch to maybe escape some of the blast, PFC Hernandez ran by both of them, throwing his body on the first land mine.
Yet, the DOD gave a medal to Scott, wanting a live body to parade around the country, trying to drum up support for an unpopular war.
Did Hernandez, a regular kid, change two lives? That goes without saying. I don't think I have to expand on the reasons.
However, there is more to the story. Scott couldn't live with that truth and soon became a homeless, alcoholic on the mean streets of Los Angeles. The bitter thought of a lie meant he couldn't escape the means streets. The location may have changed, with better weather, but it was still the same.
David Rossi used his GI Bill benefits, after finishing his tour in the Marines and graduated from college, being the first in his family to do so. He joined the FBI, and some time later, along with two other agents started the Behavioral Analysis Unit: the specialized unit within the Bureau that targets serial killers, rapists, pedophiles, child kidnappers and terrorists. David Rossi got tired of being behind them. The unit developed profiling skills to get ahead of these people and their prominence rose.
Yet, worn out by the chase of nut cases and pyscho's, plus personal issues, David Rossi retired. But, when the BAU suddenly lost a senior profiler, he came back. And I'm proud to say, my dad, who Agent Rossi mentored into the BAU before his retirement, is the Unit Chief, with David Rossi as his Senior Profiler.
But I digress. Re-wind to six months ago. The BAU was called to LA to consult on a case where a serial killer was killing homeless people. Along the way, Dave Rossi ran into Harrison Scott. As they concluded the case, Rossi found out the rest of the story from Scott; what PFC Hernandez had done that day. And the awful secret that Scott had been living with. Little did he know David Rossi could do something about it.
Did bringing the truth to light by Sergeant Scott mean a regular person changed a life? You could argue no. I know better. He started the process of getting a wrong corrected. That's changing a life; and more than one.
You see, Senior SSA David Rossi, Uncle Dave to me, upon his retirement, became a best-selling author, fives time over (soon to be six) and a consultant. His bank account is what all of my fellow students dream about. Uncle Dave, with his connections, and prominence, made some phone calls, sent some emails, and hammered a few heads to help get that horrific wrong fixed. With some help, the right Marine would receive his due.
A regular man; hell a man living on the streets, started the ball rolling to change not one life but three.
This past weekend, I sat and watched that wrong being corrected, thanks to Harrison Scott. The mother of Anthony Hernandez, along with her grandson, Anthony Hernandez III, accepted posthumously from the Sergeant Major of US Marine Corps the Silver Star for gallantry in action for Anthony J. Hernandez. Yes, the top NCO of United State Marine Corps flew out to Los Angeles to personally present this medal. With Staff Sergeant Anthony Hernandez III, in his full Marine dress blues, putting his arm around his grandmother as she accepted her son's long overdue medal.
But the story doesn't end there. The medal ceremony was at New Directions, part of the LA County VA Facility. New Directions has volunteers that scour the streets of LA to get homeless veterans into their program of assistance, training, and into jobs. And a normal, work life; being a contributing citizen, again, to our country. There's a building full of regular people, changing lives every day.
And while you may not categorize Uncle Dave as a regular person, given his bank account, I know the love he gives myself, my younger brother and our father. He's just a regular person that can love non-biologically related people unconditionally. In our own dark time, dealing with the very exact person the BAU chase, I and my younger brother lost our mother. Uncle Dave was our rock; to my brother, my dad and me.
And then there's Harrison Scott. Uncle Dave, along with Jake Moreland, Director of New Directions, convinced Harrison Scott to join the New Directions program. Harry could have enjoyed a second night in a luxurious Santa Monica hotel with Uncle Dave and me. Yet he chose to start his new life. Uncle Dave and I are anxiously awaiting news on how this is going.
In the matter of less than five hours, three lives got changed by David Rossi kicking the DOD's butt to correct a wrong. I was blessed and honored to witness this. And I'm very proud, and humbled to say I got to shake the hand of Maria Hernandez and her grandson with the proudest smiles on their faces. That changed my life, knowing that Anthony Hernandez was finally getting his due. He helped save Uncle Dave's life. And Harry's.
Yet, in the end, what happened in that hotel room that was the biggest game changer. Harrison Scott gave me his dog tags from that time in his deep, dark hell of war. He told me to share them with my younger brother when our dad, and Uncle Dave were out on a case and it was just the two of us at home. He would be there for us. Jack now tells our dad when he calls us the first night out on the road. "Dad, we've got Harry watching over us."
Harrison Scott changed another life. A young kid that will sleep even better than he already does, knowing that Harry is there as well. And Jack has never met Harry. I hope someday, that changes.
So how many lives, by the simple act of heroism of Anthony Hernandez, a kid from Waco, chasing the American Dream, got changed?
In conclusion, I feel there are people out there that change our lives every day. Like me, they believe that the simple act of kindness is "passing it forward" in life. But that blurs the bounds of life and religion, and we all know in our society today it is taboo to cross that boundary and speak about it in public. That is especially true in a college setting; which I cannot understand.
The problem is we have become so descensistied by all of this. We don't see or recognize that. I witnessed greatness last weekend. However, I was the person that helped that lady change a flat tire in the pouring rain. With my own brother, buckled into his car seat (yes, he's that much younger) as well as that woman's daughter in her own. When I got back into my vehicle, thoroughly drenched to the skin, my younger brother, whom I have the responsibility to care for when dad is traveling with the team, look at me in my rear view mirror. He said, "Ya did good Zach."
Yet, I feel my random act of kindness changed a life. In that woman's life long term: no. But if not that woman's, my younger brother's; I gave him the life lesson to pass it on. And that's a game changer in my world.
Changing a life can come in all sizes and shapes. It's how you fit it into the situation and most importantly, step forward and do something.
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A/N: The GI Bill provides benefits to veterans, including assistance with college tuition. It was passed in 1944 to help returning WW II veterans re-start their lives. The benefits are still available today. Many use it to get a college education. WW II vets also used the home mortgage assistance to start the great expanse in the US we now call the suburbs.