There is a day in Iraq in 2006 I can remember more vividly than any day before or since, short of my wedding and my three children being born. It was the day I met Staff Sergeant (SSG) Ronald Paulsen, but when I met him he was already dead. /1 (thread)

My platoon and I had gone out on a medical mission to secure an Iraqi clinic while another unit of American medical personnel, including SSG Paulsen, offered care to the city of Tarmiyah. Joining SSG Paulsen's unit were two Iraqi interpreters. /2

One interpreter, a man, helped me organize Iraqi Police into security positions. Another interpreter, a woman, conducted interviews of female patients seeking treatment. /3

As we left the clinic after completing the mission, I heard two explosions that carried with them the certain sound of roadside bombs. Two Humvees from SSG Paulsen's unit had suffered catastrophic damage. /4

If you look this day up in accounts of America’s fallen — October 17, 2006 — you’ll see that SSG Ronald Paulsen died from the blasts. I tried to reach him, but I couldn’t. The fire engulfing his vehicle was too great. /5

But SSG Paulsen didn't die alone - two others died with him, people not so often remembered: the Iraqi interpreters who were with us. /6

I ran toward SSG Paulsen’s vehicle & I passed what remained of a body mangled in the street. It was the female Iraqi interpreter. She was now unrecognizable, her legs and arms almost entirely gone. Her humanity, on display earlier, had been turned into an almost inhuman form. /7

I kept moving, and found the male interpreter attempting to crawl inch by inch away from the fire burning through his own Humvee. I touched him. His skin was wooden. His limbs were immobile. His tongue was black. /8

One of my soldiers and I pulled him away from his vehicle and lifted him onto a makeshift gurney. As we did, his last words reached me within the chaos around us: “Help. Me.” By the time the medical evacuation helicopter arrived, he was already dead. /9

What I love about this country is that though I never knew SSG Paulsen or the interpreters who helped us that day, I live through their sacrifice every single day. /10

I measure my days, months, and years against their sacrifice, always coming up short and hoping for more time, more opportunities to live up to it as a father, husband, and public servant. /11

It’s a social contract that either binds this country or will tear it apart if we let our leaders outright dishonor it. We have that choice, and I choose to honor the sacrifice of SSG Paulsen - among countless others - in the work of striving for a more perfect Union. /12