Tom Little Endures as 
Medal of Freedom Winner

Tom Little was an optometrist from Delmar, N.Y. who was killed in Afghanistan while providing vision and other humanitarian services to poor Afghans. He was honored by president Barrack Obama with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian recognition a person can receive for contributions to our nation's security or national interest. Dr. Little was 61 years old and an active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, N.Y. 

He was murdered by the Taliban on Aug. 5, 2010 with nine other members of a medical team that had been providing eye care in Nuristan Province, 160 miles north of Kabul. The team was composed of six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghans involved in a three week mission. In accordance with his wishes he was buried in the British cemetery in Kabul. He leaves behind his wife, Libby, and three daughters. The couple, high school sweethearts at Ichabod Crane High School in Valatie, N.Y., lived and worked together in Afghanistan for 33 years, as important workers for the National Organization of Ophthalmic Rehabilitation Eye Care Program.

Little and his team had parked their Land Rovers, since the terrain they needed to cross was impossible for the vehicles to negotiate. They subsequently hiked for hours with pack horses over a 16,000 foot mountain pass to reach remote mountain villages where they had been invited to provide care. Upon returning to the Land Rovers, they were ambushed as they were attempting to cross a rain swollen river and were killed. A Taliban spokesman said the foreigners were killed because they were "spying for the Americans and preaching Christianity." Robbery was the additional theory that was considered. Officials maintain that the organization is a non profit Christian organization but does not distribute bibles or proselytize. The charity said, "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year." 

Little oversaw three 40 bed hospitals in Kabul and two other important cities and also three smaller 10 bed clinics. He had been expelled by the Taliban government in Aug. 2001 as a suspect involved with eight Christian aid workers for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. He returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban government was toppled in Nov. 2001 by the U.S backed forces. Several members of the medical team were women. Observers who knew Dr. Tom felt a sense of defeat when they heard that he had been killed. He had escaped kidnappings, rocket attacks and fire fights so many times that it didn't seem possible that his life would end in such a manner. There was still so much work to be done in Afghanistan. He was just one man, yet the country lost much hope because of his passing.

Dr. Little was the son of an ophthalmologist. He studied optics at Tufts University and worked as an optician. He was familiar with basic testing techniques and how to fit spectacles. These skills came in handy when his wife, Libby and their two daughters moved to Afghanistan in the 1970s to work with an international Christian aid agency. They thought that they would serve for a couple of years and return home to N.Y. 

A friend, Henry Heintz, revealed in the Albany Times Union, "They had no idea that it would dominate the rest of their lives. No matter what regime was in power, they allowed him to return because they knew that Tom loved the people and served their practical needs." He began working for the National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) Eye Hospital in Kabul, where he worked for about 30 years. NOOR operates about a dozen eye centers throughout the country and each year cares for roughly 225,000 Afghanis and provides surgery for more than 14,000 patients. Libby has been teaching at an international school in Kabul. One of his daughters, Nelika, is following in the family footsteps, working for an NGO that helped to oversee elections in 2005 as the country attempts to move toward a more democratic society. Tom returned to the U.S. in 2006 to receive an official optometry degree from the New England College of Optometry.

He was considered by many to be the best authority on eye care in Afghanistan. Tom enrolled in the college's Advanced Standing International Program, which affords an optometry degree in two years to foreign educated eye professionals or to those who work as eye care providers overseas. Dr. Little wanted to train others in Afghanistan and establish an infrastructure of clinics and eye doctors. He was considered "irreplaceable." 

Dr. Little and his wife, Libby, raised three daughters in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation of the country and subsequent civil war. A story is told that the family hid in their basement while the Taliban ruled the country. But Dr. Little continued to provide eye care to the Afghan people even after a rocket demolished one of the NOOR hospitals where he worked. In a 2004 interview, Tom recounted family picnics that ended with attempted Taliban kidnappings. This is what Afghanistan has come to be; a land where civilian human aid workers can't be guaranteed safety. A Times Union news report states, "This is unspeakably hostile terrain where the most inhuman forces of extremism and intolerance compete for the dishonor of having slaughtered the innocent." Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton commented, "They were unarmed. They were not being paid for their services. They had traveled to this distant part of the world because they wanted to help people in need."

More than 900 people congregated at the Loudonville Community Church in N.Y. to honor Tom Little. The church supported his work financially and emotionally, as well. One of the church attendees was Dr. Tom Hale, a medical relief worker, who told the crowd, "Dr. Little’s death was not in vain. This was not a waste. But it is an enormous loss. Many of us are angry." Libby Little revealed that her husband had recently become involved in a program to eradicate preventable blindness by the year 2020. Despite the 
difficult circumstances, Libby kept her composure while reminiscing about her husband. She remarked, "We had 40 wonderful years, serving together all those years, doing what we thought we should do. And that's enough for a life." 

When Libby spoke from the podium at the memorial service she voiced, "We honor God's unique call on Tom's life skills and energy. We believe, with Tom, that there are some things in life worth dying for." His friend Harry Heintz spoke of his memories of Tom. He stated, "Tom had an angular, athletic frame. His hair was a sandy reddish color flecked with gray. He had an ‘aw shucks’ manner,” said Mr. Heintz. “He looked like an adult version of one of Mark Twain's Mississippi boys. He was a serious man with a ready smile. His demeanor was quiet and shy. He didn't seek the spotlight, but when he spoke it was always worth hearing. He worked best when the spotlight was on the needy eyes of another human being. Tom wore spectacles and was known for his dry sense of humor. He loved to hike and run, pushing himself harder with each step." 

Mr. Heintz added, "We once ate at a restaurant operated by Afghans. When the server came to our table, Tom looked up and spoke to him in his own language. A smile broke across the man's face. He had a relative in Kabul who was a doctor. Tom knew his relative. I listened in awe even though I could not understand a word they were saying."

No matter what Afghan regime was in power they allowed Dr. Little to return because they knew he loved the people and served their practical needs. Little didn't hand out Bibles or religious pamphlets there. He never acted on a political agenda nor imposed his own culture upon them. The only banner he raised was the flag of unconditional love, unending good deeds and cross cultural friendship. Mr. Heintz notes, "That flag still flies, though it is blood stained." 

There is hope, however, in the inspiration that Tom and the other victims leave behind. The lives they led, served as an example, with service, humility, respect and courage as a course to be emulated. None who met them would forget them. If, one day, stability and peace return to Afghanistan, their quiet decades 
of groundwork will have played no small part.