Photo By Staff Sgt. Adeline Witherspoon | U.S. Army Soldiers, assigned to 643rd Engineer Support, 11th Engineer Battalion, 2nd...... read more read more
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CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea— Illness is the most insidious form of domestic terrorism. It uses our own resources against us to break the body down into bits and pieces—a lump, a headache, a doctor’s visit—and after the trickle comes the flood. A stranger, a literal sleeper cell, who’s been living undercover, turns our body into hostile foreign territory. E causa ignota—cause unknown.
Sgt. Mohammed Abdulrahahman, a carpentry and masonry specialist assigned to 643rd Engineer Support Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, first noticed something strange during physical readiness training: a muscle cramp, or so he thought, said 1st Lt. Michael A. Burkeen, Abdulrahaman’s platoon leader.
Abdulrahaman was diagnosed with stage IV renal cancer that had already spread to the lungs.
“We never thought he was sick, then one day he said it just kept hurting,” said Burkeen. “It was just so sudden. We never thought he’d be gone just like that. He was so easy to love.”
Abdulrahaman’s platoon called the hospital every day after he was escorted by his leadership to the Warrior Transition Brigade at Fort Belvoir, Va., for further care.
“Each day I could hear his voice fading,” said Burkeen. “By the end of it, he barely even recognized our names.”
Soldiers who knew Abdulrahaman filled the pews of the sweltering Warrior Chapel during a memorial ceremony held May 30, at Camp Humphreys. As the temperature inside soared, beads of sweat commingled with tears on the faces of those in attendance.
“He was the first Soldier I’ve ever lost,” said Burkeen. “If the Soldier dies in combat, you can hate the enemy. But this way, who do you blame?”
Soldiers presented tributes and shared memories in honor of Abdulrahman during this memorial ceremony to honor and grieve his loss.
Grieving together is a way to comprehend the incomprehensible, or at least a way to reach out into the void for another hand to hold while we wait for life to make sense again, said Staff Sgt. Christina Washek, the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade religious affairs specialist.
“Trying to find answers together is how we grow stronger as a squad,” said Spc. Allan Majisu, one of Abdulrahaman’s Soldiers. “He (Abdulrahaman) prayed for the world, he prayed for his Soldiers, and he prayed for the well-being of everyone around him.”
Grief doesn’t follow a checklist because death, like life, is unpredictable and complex.
“You see, thorny stems do, in the long run, blossom,” said Chaplain (Capt.) Joseph Campbell, assigned to 11th Engineer Battalion. “Growth does follow the rain…the sufferings and death we experience in life can be redeeming. They sanctify us, they strengthen us, and they refine us like gold in the furnace.”
Before enlisting in the Army in 2014, Abdulrahaman taught secondary biology and chemistry in West Africa, and natural sciences in Queens, New York. Abdulrahaman, born in Accra, Ghana, is survived by his wife, Nimatu Abukari, and two young sons, Naik and Fariq.
“His (Abdulrahaman’s) love for others was one of the main reasons he joined this profession, he didn’t have to do this. He wanted to,” said Majisu.
| Date Taken: | 05.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2018 08:54 |
| Story ID: | 282267 |
| Location: | KR |
| Web Views: | 148 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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