But not for Thaddeus Willey.

The retired Army sergeant and Purple Heart recipient discovered that he actually thrives on chaos during the Iraq War, initially during a search for a potentially lethal “person of interest,” Willey said, following an Armed Forces Day observance Saturday at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center.

The Martinsburg native realized that he was noticing “every garbage bag, every window, every person’s hands,” he said.

“Chaos slows the world down for me,” he stated, as the modest crowd that attended the observance dispersed from the medical center grounds. “It makes me think sharper.”

Local veterans groups and the Jaffa Highlanders participated in the Armed Forces Day observance Saturday at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center. Mirror photo by William Kibler

For others, chaos can be the ruination of clarity, Willey said.

For him, that comes with calm.

When his surroundings are placid, “my mind (goes to) 50 different things,” he said.

Focus at those times can be difficult, he said.

The ability to thrive while everything around is chaotic is something service members can learn for sure only in combat, because “training is training,” and “your mind still knows you’re safe,” Willey said.

Members of the Jaffa Highlanders participated in the Armed Forces Day service on Saturday at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center in Altoona. Mirror photo by William Kibler

His own ability to think clearly while there’s disorder all about serves him well also in civilian life, in his job as a field installation superintendent for PennStress precast and prestressed concrete in Roaring Spring, he said.

On a construction site for a bridge, factory, parking garage or stadium, there’s frequently confusion, but he’s in his element, he said.

Brothers in arms

Sgt. Willey earned his Purple Heart for the same incident that killed Army Specialist Chad Edmundson of Williamsburg, a member of Willey’s four-person patrol team.

Edmundson was like “a little brother,” Willey said. “(One) you love dearly and have to yell at sometimes,” he said.

Jaffa Highlander Rob Vonada plays the bagpipes during Armed Forces Day ceremonies Saturday at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center. Mirror photo by William Kibler

The younger man was cheerful and outgoing, according to Willey.

“He could make you smile when you’re in the worst place in your mind,” he said.

While “not dumb,” Edmundson would sometimes “do something totally stupid — with a grin on his face.”

If the team were patrolling the streets “looking for everything — all that is bad, that will kill you and hurt you,” Edmundson would sometimes make “goofy” gestures, interacting playfully with children, Willey said.

“It would bring a little humanity back to your mind,” Willey said.

All the soldiers did that sort of thing once in a while, he said. “But Chad more so,” Willey said.

“He was on patrol with me every day,” Willey said.

Until the day in May 2009 when Edmundson stepped on an improvised explosive device seven feet away from Willey.

“I still hear the yell, ‘Sergeant Will, I’m hit,'” Willey said from the podium, explaining what, for him, is the reality behind his Purple Heart. “I see and hear this, knowing someone’s last words and efforts were pleading for help that I was unable to give …”

“Even for the toughest guys, it was scary,” Willey said of his time in Iraq. “You’d wake up every morning not knowing if that’s your last.”

The situation helped ensure you didn’t “take things for granted,” Willey said.

It led him to “look for something positive each day,” he stated.

Edmundson’s death was “absolutely terrible,” he said.

Yet it has led to positives at home, in the form of his family’s Spc. Chad A. Edmundson Memorial Foundation, which helps struggling veterans, supports patriotic causes, provides scholarships and helps ensure recognition for other families whose members have also died in the service, Willey said.

Willey cited Edmundson’s stepmother, Sherry Edmundson, during his speech for lots of behind-the-scenes work with the foundation, calling her up to the podium to be recognized.

‘Any disability can be overcome’

The explosion that killed Edmundson inflicted a traumatic brain injury and shrapnel wounds on Willey, but the disability that followed only focused his determination to transcend any resulting limitations — much like chaos focused his attention, Willey said.

Willey said he was angry when the VA told him he had brain damage.

He didn’t accept it, nor did he accept the VA prognosis that he would never walk again with a normal gait, he said.

“I learned new ways to be just as effective,” Willey stated.

That effort included his earning a Bachelor of Science degree at Saint Francis University with straight As, he said.

“Any disability can be overcome,” he said.

Everyone who’s been in combat thinks of those experiences in later life, he said.

And everyone ought to deal with those experiences in a way that turns them into a positive, he said.

It doesn’t make sense to let thoughts that come “at night” get you down, Willey said.

After all, the thoughts are virtually nothing, compared to the reality that triggered them — a reality that the service member has survived, he said.

“Your ass walked out of it, now use it as a strength, not a crutch,” he said. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

He speaks his mind, and the results aren’t always politically correct, Willey admitted.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.