“US Air Force veteran Michael Choate has written an open letter to Ukrainian military personnel who have been seriously injured while defending their country.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Not because of age, not because of illness. And because you blocked someone’s peace from the threat.
You responded not to the call of the gods or fate, but to the invisible cry of history moving forward through human greed and politics.
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You didn’t ask to be a hero.
You didn’t expect medals, speeches, or loud words. You just came because someone had to. And he stayed, even when he had to pay not only with blood, but also with his hand, eye, silence, sleep, memory.
And here you are. You are still whole in something that most of us will not understand. Not because your body remained intact, but because your spirit was not broken.
Because you carry not only your trauma, but also the silent burden of reminding everyone what a real victim looks like.
I have seen some of you in quiet moments. With my wife by my side as she helped translate words and pain*. And I saw how something real arose between you: a kind of peace that is deeper than ordinary peace.
It’s the calm after the storm – when you’ve already been through hell and you just know: life itself is already a truth that doesn’t need to be shouted.
And I… I’m just sitting next to it. Not to make poetry out of it or find beauty in tragedy. I just want to acknowledge how unfair it is – and still appreciate the way you hold it.
You did not choose to be the face of suffering.
I will never undertake to speak FOR you. But I will talk ABOUT you – because your story is not only service. This is a mirror for each of us. A mirror that asks: What do we do with our integrity when someone has lost it for us?
What do we do with our mornings when someone has spent a sleepless night making them come?
What do we do with our happiness when someone has shed blood for us to have it?
Such a debt cannot be returned. Nor flags. Nor parades. Nor loud speeches from afar.
Maybe you can just respect him. To respect so much that we become more humane, more attentive, appreciate a little more the fact that we can walk, hug, see, live – because someone else gave a part of himself for it.
If it does—if we can carry even a shred of that responsibility forward—then maybe the injustice that took your hand, your eyes, your silence… at least won’t take your story in vain.
Thank you.
For everything you gave.
And for what you remain.
*Michael’s wife, journalist Ksenia Turkova, works as a translator in the organization United Help Ukraine and helps Ukrainian military personnel who are in the USA for rehabilitation and prosthetics.
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