Below is a letter I wrote to newsanchor Peter Jennings on the morning after he announced he had lung cancer. I would love to hear your comments on this. It is a true story (obviously...who could make this up?) My son is now inactive in the military and doing well.
Dear Mr. Jennings,
It was with great sadness that I read today that you have lung cancer. You hold a very dear place in my heart and I want you to know my thoughts and prayers are with you.
May I please relay a story to you of which you are an integral part? I hope it will make you smile and know that angels are with you.
My name is Lisa Sullivan and I have a 20 year old son in the United States Army. He enlisted at the age of 17 with an MOS of Ranger three weeks prior to 9/11 and became active duty in August of 2002. He went through Infantry and Airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia and then went into what is called RIP (Ranger Indoctrination Program).
It had been his dream for many years to become a Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Going into this training he was not in the greatest physical shape. He had been battling sinus infections the entire time he was in boot camp and airborne school and by the time he began RIP he had double pneumonia and would not tell anyone or go for any treatment. He told me if he went for any treatment he would be out of the program. Sigh. He made it through the first week of this grueling training, pneumonia and all. But in his second week, sometime in January, they had to do training where they go out into the field for 72 hours of extreme physical training. On the second night with temperatures the coldest they had been in 50 years and nothing on but his BUD’s his superiors pulled him aside and told him he could not go on. They realized how sick he was and knew he needed medical attention. He was devastated to say the least and out of the program.
It was two months prior to the war breaking out in Iraq. He had to now wait to be given orders of where he would be stationed. He was working in the regiment getting Rangers ready for war, but NOT a Ranger. These became very dark times for him, and for me. During one of his darker moments he called and was just so sad and disheartened. I was scared for him and with nothing for me to do to help, I prayed. I asked for his guardian angel to watch over him and pull him out of his depression. His guardian angels name is Peter (that is another long story). Later in the week I spoke with him on the phone and told him that his angel Peter was with him always and watching over him. My big, tough army son said, “Thanks mom”.
Time passed and he was given orders to be stationed with the 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. He loved Alaska and was not there 3 days when he volunteered for a very elite scouting unit within the 501st. There were only 15 men in this unit and they trained hard. He loved it and was happy, happy, happy.
On his 19 birthday, I received a phone call at work from him. The first thing he said to me was that he had just received the best birthday present of his life. I had not sent him anything and wondered what on Earth he could have gotten. He told me they had received orders that morning that they were deploying to Afghanistan in October. This was the end of July, July 29th to be exact. I swallowed hard and tried to be happy for him. I hung up the phone and cried. He came home to Connecticut on leave a few weeks before his deployment and let me tell you, saying goodbye to him at the airport was THE hardest thing I have ever done in my life. No words can begin to explain the emotion of sending a son off to war. He would be stationed on the border of Pakistan working as part of a 7 man scout/sniper team.
On the day he left for Afghanistan I was not able to be with him to say goodbye. Instead I was on a plane to Los Angeles to attend seminar/workshop on, what else, angels. The date was October 26, 2003. In the morning before my departure I had said a prayer that I would have a “miracle every minute while I was away and that “Peter” my son’s angel would be on the flight as a sign that he would be ok”. Now I did not expect a real angel and I did not know how it would manifest, but I do believe in miracles. I just needed to know on a very deep level that God was watching over my son and that he would come home alive.
My sister and I, were flying from JFK to LAX on that morning and my son was flying from Alaska to Afghanistan. As I stepped onto the plane I was excited for what lay ahead for me and scared to death for what lay ahead for my beloved son. As I stepped into the plane I looked to my right (just curious who was in first class) and in the very first window seat was you. I walked by and kicked my sister in the back of the leg and whispered, “Did you just see Peter Jennings”. She swore and said, “No I was looking the other way”. We got a big giggle out of this.
Later as the plane was taxiing down the runway I took hold of my sisters hand and told her that I had prayed that morning for a “miracle every minute and for my son's guardian angel Peter to be on the flight”. As I said those words, my jaw dropped and tears filled my eyes for I knew my wish had been granted. Peter was on the flight. You were my “sign”. Of all the 250 people on the plane that morning, your name was the only one I knew besides of course my sisters. It was in that moment that I knew there was magic in the air and that miracles can and do happen and I thank you for being a part of that. If you remember this flight, it was during the horrific fires in California that October. We were one of the only planes that landed at LAX that day. I always think it was because you were on the flight. I don’t know but, thanks. You were “my sign” that this beloved son of mine would come home and he did.
A few months later the connection became even stronger. I was looking through books at our local borders, and yes, I was looking at books on angels. There happened to be a book I had never seen before. This book took every three days of the year and assigned an angel to them. Along with the angels name it told of celebrities who shared these same days as birthdays. Curious I looked up my birthday, my daughters and then my sons and there on the page that held the three days around my son’s birthday was your picture. It did not tell the specific dates of the celebrities birthday and I just thought how very weird if you have the same birthday. I quickly ran home and did a web search “Peter Jennings Birthday” and low and behold you and my son hold the same birthday of July 29th.
You are dear to me. I think of you often with the fondest of thoughts and wishes for many blessings. Without even knowing it, you were used as an instrument for this mom to get through her son’s deployment and from the bottom of my heart I thank you.
Just as an aside, a few hours after I read the news of your announcement today, I received a phone call from my son. He was once again at Fort Benning and in RIP. The phone call was to tell me he had passed all the rigorous training and would soon wear the tan beret of a United States Army Airborne Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment.
God bless you Peter and know my prayers are with you. I not only send my prayers but some of my son’s courage and fight. You can get through this. Blessings.
Sincerely,
Lisa Sullivan
rate
email
print
link to this page
