Remembrance – an Ordinary Life: John Pryor, M.D. Killed in Iraq
January 30th, 2009 | by BGuzzardi |“Absolute heart-breaker of a story tonight, guys. I’ve had an opportunity this year to write about some brave men and women who have survived war in one form or another. Well, this is a sobering reminder that not everyone gets to come home.”
A surgeon at UPenn, talented, disciplined, valued for providing valuable service to others. He volunteered for Iraq, a hostile fire zone. I have had colleagues stationed in Iraq. They came back. This is true public service, keeping us safe and free. John Pryor was a productive citizen, performing essential services. Not the razzle dazzle, drama of a Madonna Concert or Michael Jackson or George Clooney movie: Dr. Pryor was what they pretend to be, what they dramatize. Dr. Pryor was real world, public servant. The Daily News blogger David Gambacorta hit this one right: “heart-breaker”. One less decent, productive taxpayer, a solid person in Philadelphia. And soon, Dr. Pryor, will be forgotten by all but a few. A person who did the best he could; not a super star, not a household word, not in the newspaper every day, an ordinary person distinguished for what he made of himself and a value to others.
Dr. Pryor’s death reminds me of the death of some of the guys I went to high school with who died in Viet Nam and a college guy who was killed as a tail gunner in Viet Nam, the most unlikely tail gunner, a kid, not 23 years old. So sad and the point of it all?…..
Remembrance-an Ordinary Life is part of a series. Few in this world will remember him; all of heaven will.