Roy Exum
Andrew Smith, who charmed those at Chattanooga Christian School from the time he was in kindergarten until he graduated as a senior in 2005, has always held a deep conviction towards serving his country. That was puzzling to some because, in all his years at CCS, he was an ideal student – smart and impressive – but quiet and reserved at the same time.
Andrew then attended Lee University, the Christ-centered college in Cleveland. It wasn’t far from where his folks, Todd and Cathy, have raised a wonderful family in Ooltewah and little did he ever expect that he would soon become best friends and fall in love with a dazzling girl named Tori.
When he asked her to marry him after they both graduated, he told her he was going to enlist in the U.S. Army while she attended law school.
“I was totally behind it … but I wanted to know why,” she told WTVC-TV reporter Lindsay Jackson in a moving interview on Monday. “He told me he would do anything, and go anywhere, to keep the fighting from ever coming here.”
Last Thursday, on his very first patrol in Afghanistan for the United States, the same Andrew Smith stepped on a hidden explosive device and it blew off the lower portion of one leg and damaged his other foot. He had been “in country” for only three weeks at the time and was the only one in his squad seriously wounded.
Still in critical condition, Smith was flown to Washington, D.C., yesterday, this after first being “med-vac-ed” to a field hospital in Afghanistan, and, almost immediately, transferred to a much-larger medical facility in Germany to be stabilized.
As the soldier was being brought home, the prayers of thousands – launched by a Facebook page called “Pray for Andrew” – carried him across the ocean. For those not attuned to prayer, I invite them to watch the television segment aired on Monday by the Chattanooga ABC Network affiliate. Even WTVC reporter Lindsay Scott admitted she “was astounded by the positivity” of Tori Smith, who is shown wearing an Army sweatshirt.\
For the record, the young couple was married just two days before Christmas and, less than two months later, he was deployed to Afghanistan. “He joined at a time of war. And so we knew he would get deployed, and we knew likely that he would get deployed multiple times, but he felt that it was his duty to serve his country," his wife told the camera.
When she was asked about the terrible injuries that still cause her handsome young husband to be listed in critical condition, her voice was resilient as Tori replied, “Other Army wives have gotten far-worse news. They get the two soldiers showing up at the door saying their husband is no longer with them. They can call me and tell me my husband’s missing any limb they want, but I still have my husband. I have that blessing.”
Tori wasn’t finished. “And now I know, every day I am going to wake up and because God spared my husband, I am going to be able to tell him I love him. I am going to be the best wife to you because you are my husband. That’s why. God brought us together and nothing is going to take us apart.”
When the military transport landed yesterday, Tori, Andrew’s mother Cathy, and his brother Tyler – an ace pitcher on the Covenant College baseball team – were waiting with more family members on the way. And, according to informed sources, the brave Tori had already launched one secret plan.
She whispered that the minute she sees her Andrew, she is going to slip off her wedding band and put it on his little finger. “I want those Army nurses to know he’s already taken and that he belongs to me!”
After she did, she had this Facebook entry Tuesday night, "This is Tori!!! I just saw my husband! He was getting off ambulance and he asked for my hand and then gave me thumbs up!!! Praise God he looked great!!! Keep praying and praising!!!"
Are you kidding me? “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.
royexum@aol.com