Photo By Sgt. Christopher Gaylord | Cast members with the 2012 U.S. Army Soldier Show perform Aug. 10 for soldiers and...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Through musical portrayals of a soldier’s initial Army enlistment, basic combat training and the rigors of overseas deployments, the U.S. Army Soldier Show came to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Aug. 10, with one very intimate message at heart.
With its 2012 theme, “Army Strong,” the song-and-dance production highlighted the strengths and attributes of soldiers and their families alike – qualities like resilience, perseverance, bravery and mental toughness.
“Our mission is a morale mission, but the Army Strong theme just wants to go a little bit further building the morale of today’s soldiers, letting them know that, ‘hey, we’re there with you,’ ” said Cpl. Jeremy Gaynor, the show’s production stage manager. “It’s encouraging them and letting them know that this is what we do, and this is what we love to do – and Hooah!”
But for one of the show’s cast members, Spc. Tiffani Lindstrom, the message of encouragement and inspiration is deeply personal.
As Lindstrom, full of life, spunk and energy onstage, belted out the lyrics of Etta James’ “At Last,” few might have believed that just four years prior she was relearning to comb her hair, to eat and to recognize her closest family members – she was slowly putting together the pieces of her past one day at a time.
The fuel supply specialist’s life took a tragic turn during a yearlong deployment to Egypt in 2007. While in Nueba delivering fuel to a nearby site with her supervisor at the wheel of their transport truck, the vehicle’s brakes went out. Her supervisor lost control of the truck.
He ordered Lindstrom to bail from the vehicle, although the two were traveling at 70 miles per hour downhill and carrying 3,800 gallons of aviation fuel. She hit the ground and went unconscious.
Nine hours later, she came to and walked away from the accident. Her supervisor also jumped. He didn’t survive.
Lindstrom had broken her left arm and lost some of the skin from her forehead and face, which doctors had to replace with grafts.
She was transported to a hospital in Israel, and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where, for the next two years, she worked to regain the skills and memories she’d always taken for granted.
“I had to learn how to do everything again – little things that we take for granted, such as combing your hair, learning how to eat,” she said.
Lindstrom suffered a traumatic brain injury and was fighting her way back through what doctors referred to as post-concussion syndrome.
She had forgotten that her father had passed away. She didn’t remember she had two sisters – she could only recall one. She thought her 12-year-old daughter was 4.
But through constant family support – frequent reminder phone calls from her daughter and the singing of songs to bring life experiences back to knowledge – she recovered her life one piece at a time.
“For some reason, I can remember things through song,” said Lindstrom, a Fort Stewart, Ga., area native, who developed a passion for song and dance in elementary school. “They [family] were constantly always singing to me and telling me I could do it. Everyone else said I couldn’t; they said I could.”
No one told Lindstrom she would get her memory back, she said. No one told her she had any chance of remaining in the Army.
But in early May, when the Soldier Show traveled to Fort Stewart, Ga., her home station at the time of the accident, her local doctors sat in the first three rows cheering her on and rooting for her. She had walked away from possible death, and now she was on a stage with some of the Army’s best performers.
“I literally walked away from that accident,” she said during the show’s stopover. “I wasn’t paralyzed. It’s just nothing but God that I’m here. I feel there’s a purpose for me to be here.
“I’m not sure what it is, but every day I live it like it’s my last.”
Lindstrom, who also performed in a version of Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory,” an original cast song called “Army Strong and I know it,” and other acts, tried out last year for the Soldier Show after her superviser recommended she give it a shot. She applied but didn’t take it seriously.
“They’re so talented I didn’t think I was talented enough to get into the show, but I put the application in, they accepted, and here I am,” she said.
“It’s definitely a dream come true, to look at people and to sing to people, especially to soldiers.”
One of the first things Lindstrom tells others is that she’s lucky to be alive. She’s not the same person she was more than five years ago – still welcoming back old memories nearly every day and writing them down to ensure they never again depart – but she’s here.
“I try to be an inspiration for others – tell people that life goes on, to be strong, that anything you go through, you can make it,” she said. “Just push and keep going forward.”
“She’s a strong individual because of what she’s been through, in her personal life and her Army life,” Gaynor said. “When you see her on stage, she brings that fierceness to where it’s like, ‘I’ve been through all these things, but I’ve overcome them at the same time.’ That fierceness comes across on the stage.
“Specialist Lindstrom is definitely a prime example of Army Strong.”
Lindstrom fought tooth and nail to continue serving in the Army during a medical evaluation board process that would determine if she was fit enough to stay. She cried to evaluators, she said.
“I believed that I could do it,” she said. “I really do love the Army. It’s been good to me. I love what we do; I love to serve.”
She eventually won her battle. After she finishes with the Soldiers Show, she’ll end her term of active duty service naturally and sign into a Kentucky Reserve unit, though she’s still considering returning to the active Army.
And as is fitting of her optimistic and grateful spirit, Lindstrom, despite forgetting the lyrics to songs every now and then, is taking music as far as life will let her.
“After this show, it’s not going to stop for me,” she said. “I’m going to perform somewhere, whether it’s in a school or a gym. I’m still going to continue to sing; I’m not going to stop.”
Two years ago, she said, she dreamed of being on stage. She wasn’t sure where at or what stage she was on – only of the situation.
Today, that dream is alive and well.
| Date Taken: | 08.13.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2012 22:34 |
| Story ID: | 93152 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 173 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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