TWO DEPLOYMENTS. TWO DIFFERENT MEN.

First tour as a medic. Second tour as an Army bandsman.

I went over there holding people together with my hands. I came back the second time holding a guitar. Those aren't as different as they sound. Both are about being present when someone needs something real.

The medic work is immediate. You're there in the worst moment of someone's life and your job is to keep them in it. The music work is slower. But it reaches the same places — the places that don't show up on a body scan.

I served in the Indiana Army National Guard from 1994 to 2003. Then active duty from 2006 to 2014. Two deployments to Iraq. I came home the second time and I didn't know what to do with myself except play.

Malachias is what happened when the medic and the musician finally figured out they were the same person.