Page 43 - October 2021

Jim McCloughan took time to meet with members and take photos after his appearance at Lodge 7 Military Buddy Check Day.
because there was nothing where they could do a meet-and- greet and be able to talk to people to see if they are comfortable. There has to be a comfort level for officers to trust the process for wellness. I know we got the right resources because people were saying, ‘This is a great event.’”
Military committee member Luis Rivera described the depth of success by noting that he walked out of the day with enough business cards to make his Rolodex overflow. He added that the camaraderie filling the room made it feel like being back with the U.S. Army National Guard, where he did 21 years
and was deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“If I walked in there not knowing people’s first and last names, I guarantee at the end of the day, I did,” said Rivera, who works as an FTO in 025. “It was such a feel-good moment, where you feel like they were actually making use of it, and
it felt like a safe space.”
Walked in your boots
Even before McCloughan burst into song, Mil-
itary Buddy Check Day generated the trappings of
being back in the service. You could almost hear ca- dences in the background reminding these veterans that they are not alone.
Military life teaches how to plan and execute missions, and it can be hard to leave that life and return to what they call “nor- mal.” Once you have served in the military, there is no normal, and the Lodge set up this day to let veterans in the Department know that it’s OK to feel that way.
“All they are asking for is to understand that we are working multiple jobs being that we are serving abroad and then we come in here to serve the City,” explained military committee member Mike Henderson, who did a couple of tours in Afghan- istan from 2011 to 2013 with the U.S. Army. “And it is important that people understand that you have a lot of soldiers on this job who are afraid to even ask for help. We’re not looking for handouts, but be sympathetic to our needs knowing that we go through a lot because we’ve been deployed.”
This was not a doughnuts-and-coffee affair. The Lodge pulled out all the stops. Members enjoyed a catered breakfast and lunch. Water, soda and snacks also added to the FOP’s goal of making the event open, friendly and inviting.
Members were attracted and engaged. The sponsor tables that ringed the FOP Hall were filled throughout the day with members asking questions about how the services pertained to them and what benefits were available.
“We wanted it to reflect the spirit of the corps,” Rivera stressed. “Not just in the military, but we also wanted to show from the police side that we really do care about our service men and
women.”
To emphasize what these veterans are going through, Mc-
Cloughan offered a perspective from the battlefield. He recalled a conversation with a machine gunner from his unit who com- plained about how the “idiots” did not understand what they went through in Vietnam.
“I said, ‘Joe, what’s it like to have a baby?” And he looked at me and said ‘What? I don’t know,’” McCloughan illuminated. “Of course you don’t know, because you can’t expect somebody who hasn’t walked in your boots to understand totally
what you went through.”
A national treasure
McCloughan’s presence raised the level of special commitment to members who have served off the charts. He took photos with ev- erybody who attended. He gave out some spe- cial challenge coins commemorating his Medal
of Honor. Catanzara rushed back early from his vacation to catch the second of McCloughan’s two
presentations.
When Noceda contacted the National Medal of Honor Society to ask about getting a speaker to come for Military Buddy Check Day, he couldn’t have found somebody more apropos than this man who, 48 years after his heroics, fi- nally was awarded the recognition. He’s not only one of 67 living soldiers who have earned the Medal of Honor, but one of 3,508
who have earned the award in its 150-year existence.
“He’s a national treasure,” Noceda stated. “After his speech, I told him he’s the embodiment of the American spirit. He spoke
from the heart and brought everybody to tears.”
By the end of the day, they all called him “Doc,” the name
this heroic medic went by when he was in Vietnam. On May 13, 1969, his dedication in the field compelled Doc to run 100 meters through enemy gunfire to rescue a man who had been wounded in a helicopter crash. McCloughan was wounded multiple times during the battle but refused evacuation.
As airstrikes continued and casualties mounted, he ignored orders and rescued wounded soldiers from the kill zone four more times. For two days, he tended to wounded soldiers, refus- ing to drink his water himself so he could keep soldiers alive. The details are almost too gruesome to bear, including the wounded man he saved whose organs were falling out of his body. Doc put a pressure bandage on him and carried him to safety. After supplies ran low, Doc volunteered to hold a blinking light in an exposed position amid enemy fire to mark a location for a night resupply drop. When daylight came on May 15, Doc completed the last of saving the lives of 10 men in his unit.
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