Inspire, Spring 2011

Sarah knows she can’t let herself become emotionally drained; she knows she can’t look at each wounded soldier and imagine her deployed ROTC classmates sustaining the same injuries. One of those classmates is her fiance, Andrew Talone ’08, an infantry officer on a one-year tour in Afghanistan that is scheduled to end in May. Making Sense of the Chaos Sarah’s ability to cope with the effects of war is rooted in her faith. She is thankful for the Christian friends she made at Cedarville who helped her decide to strengthen her faith. “Now that I’m here with other women who have just graduated from nursing school, I don’t know anyone who has friendships like I do,” she said. “And I don’t know anyone else who benefited from the encouragement and spiritual growth that I experienced in college.” In turn, Sarah wants to give her patients spiritual care in addition to the physical care they need. Her patients are at low points in their lives and looking for comfort, so she finds that they are often receptive to talking about God. “I can be there with them when they’re beginning to question why they lived and their buddies didn’t,” she said. Sarah didn’t know much about the wars in the Middle East until she went to Germany. Now she can’t imagine living her life without a growing appreciation for the sacrifices soldiers make. As the war in Afghanistan reaches a 10-year milestone, she knows it isn’t often front-page news in the U.S. But she and her fellow nurses are still seeing brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and daughters and sons suffering critical injuries, losing arms, legs, and eyes. Sharing Hope for Tomorrow “The important thing is to remember to pray for and support these young soldiers who are still fighting for our country,” she said. These are people like the Navy SEAL she met last fall. He survived a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed nine U.S. servicemen. The crash was big news back home, and Sarah is thankful she was working that day. While she cared for the SEAL, he told her that his best friend had died in the crash. The two had been friends and served together since their days at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. As the SEAL was loaded onto a plane bound for home, Sarah gave him some final words of encouragement. “I told him that I thought God spared him for a reason, and he agreed. I said, ‘I’m going to pray that you learn His purpose in saving your life.’” Sarah Greenberg ’09 is a second lieutenant U.S. Army nurse serving in Landstuhl, Germany. You may contact her at sargreenberg@yahoo.com . Jeff Gilbert ’87 is assistant professor of journalism at Cedarville University. You may contact him at jgilbert@cedarville.edu. When U.S. soldiers are wounded in Middle Eastern conflicts, they are flown to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where Sarah Greenberg ’09, an Army nurse, provides care and treatment. Cedarville University 21 Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Phillip Jones