“We’re going to war!”
I will never forget those four little words that were spoken by an ROTC instructor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was September. 11, 2001, and we both sat speechless before a tiny 12-inch black and white television screen watching a third plane crash before our very eyes into the Pentagon.
Five years later it had seemed that those words had indeed come true for every soldier serving in the U.S. Army, except me. Having received my commission as a second lieutenant in the army in 2003, virtually every one of my fellow ROTC classmates had one or two deployments in support of the “global war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of September 2006, I had none.
After several deployment notifications that fell through, I became convinced that it was my destiny to remain a commissioned officer in the Army Reserves, working stateside as a specialist in homeland security. This non-deployment affected me in an adverse way. It seemed that everyone else was doing their duty or deployed overseas Why am I lucky? Why do I get to stay behind? I wondered. I was single yet watched as many of my friends with wives and children were called up to go serve while I stayed behind. It’s not fair that they have to leave their families and I still haven’t gone once, I thought.
It came as little surprise when in September of 2006 I received my latest warning order from the army that I might yet again be deploying overseas. I chalked it up to another “boy who cried wolf” scenario and went about my daily life. In the two weeks between my latest alert and when I was required to report for soldier readiness processing, my life would change forever.
Lord, as I make plans for the future, remind me that you are ultimately in control.
“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.” (James 4:14a)