Shortly after midnight on December 9, 1944, New Yorkers sighted a British ship. monarch It quietly left the port carrying members of the U.S. Army's 125th Evacuation Hospital, which was deployed to the front lines in Europe during World War II. Among them was another ordinary New Yorker, but someone special to me. Her great-aunt, Lieutenant Louella Cochran, had begun a wartime tour of duty through England, France, and Great Britain, although she did not know it at the time. It's been a year and a half since I came to Germany. Her first surgery as a nurse anesthetist was a leg amputation.
Faith was essential to enduring the war. Her first letter home told her mother, “I went to Holy Communion last Sunday and yesterday, and I will go again tomorrow.'' Don't worry. all is well. ”
Her mother Rosa certainly had nothing to worry about. Because she had already buried her child before World War I. My great-uncle, Sergeant Joseph Lorenz of the U.S. Army's Rainbow Division, American Expeditionary Force, made the ultimate sacrifice on November 21, 1918, at the age of 21, and was buried in Salènes, France. First sacrifice one of his legs.
Aunt Lou visited his grave twice during deployment. I followed in the footsteps of my Gold Star mother, who visited as part of the historic Gold Star Pilgrimage in 1930, and preceded my mother's footsteps in 2015, when she visited my great-uncle's final resting place.
History books record the horrors of war, depicting the details of battles, successes and failures, and depicting the brave and honorable actions of soldiers who went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure freedom in the heat of battle. But what these black-and-white details don't reveal is that there are invisible forces at work. It is the source of courage to turn the tide, the source of invisible protection, the embrace from which the soldier finds solace. In the depths of fear, the agony of pain, brutal violence, and moments of joy, where will the combatants go? faith.
In 2006, nearly 100 years after Lorenz's death, Gold Star's mother Laura de Roo experienced a similar unfathomable loss. Her son, U.S. Army Sgt. Gabriel de Roo was killed by a sniper's bullet in Iraq during the Global War on Terror.
His fellow soldiers nicknamed him “John 3:16.” De Roux dreamed of returning to Iraq as a pastor during peacetime after the war. From an early age, he valued eternal life beyond earthly life, and had the foresight to tell his family, “If there was a grenade, I would be the first to go on it.'' Others need more time to get right with God. ”
Sometimes prayers come down from above. My two married cousins are U.S. Naval Aviator Commanders. Chris and Lieutenant Colonel. Angie Baker — Both flew variants of the Lockheed EP-3 and had even flown missions over Afghanistan on the same night in different squadrons. Each of them prayed mightily for each other and the crew members on their respective missions, bringing safety in the knowledge that they were in God's hands. They both returned home safely.
“Faith gives you the opportunity to focus on what is important to accomplishing your mission,” Chris told me. They also prayed for the warriors below, sometimes watching the flashes of gunfire. The soldiers below called them “the eyes of the sky,” perhaps not knowing that they were protected not only by air power but also by prayer.
U.S. Army SFC 18/Z Green Beret Jeremiah Wilbur grew up on a Native American reservation in Montana, where he repeated a seemingly nonsensical phrase whenever he felt scared and carried it with him throughout his life. He learned the meaning of the phrase during a fierce gunfight in Iraq as time slowed down and the phrase was presented to him in English. Jesus is always with me.
Sometimes the battle does not remain on the battlefield. Sergeant Michael Berardo of the U.S. Army's 85th Airborne endured more than 100 surgeries and counting after being seriously injured by two IEDs in the span of two weeks in Afghanistan.
His catastrophic injuries continue to cause physical and mental challenges, and his wonderful wife Sarah not only takes care of him, but also takes on many other duties. But faith keeps both her and Michael strong. “If it’s not good, then God isn’t done,” she says.
The “good” looks different than expected. Colonel Tim Kercher lost his leg in an IED explosion three days after he took care of me while I was stranded in Sadr City, Iraq as an NFL cheerleader on a USO tour in 2009. “God promised me eternal life! Not eternal legs,” he quipped. “But I know that prayer saved my life.”
One of the central principles of the Jewish faith is: Tikun Olam: “Repairing the World'' As U.S. Navy Lieutenant Morgan Ortagus stood before the world as a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, he boldly lived up to his beliefs and modeled an important visual symbol for the world. A visibly pregnant Jewish woman speaks out against human rights violations, speaks out against human rights violations, and calls for people to be careful. It demonstrated the atrocities committed against the Muslim minority population and the attention and support that persecuted Uyghur women received.
And who will serve the minister? “To this day, the biggest case of PTS I've witnessed was in a fellow chaplain,” Col. Doug Collins recalled.
The psalmist says: The Lord is our refuge and stronghold, the God in whom we trust, under whose wings we will be protected, whose faithfulness is our shield and wall. says. For our combatants, there is no greater challenge than the brutal demands of war. Intense combat and long deployments will test your resolve and courage. The ultimate sacrifice and the pain of loss through family separation trouble even the strongest of hearts. Every role a soldier plays in combat requires more perseverance, determination, and courage than ever before. Sometimes we need a miracle. But with God all things are possible. The stories in my new book, Under His Wings, reveal just that.
Emily Compagno is co-host of 'Outnumbered' on fox news channel. “Under His Wings: How Faith on the Front Lines Has Protected American Troops” will be released by FOX News Books on November 26th.
