Leading men and women in combat strengthened my faith. We topped out at around three thousand soldiers under my command. Before we left I had a meeting with all the families. I asked them what their biggest concern was. Their top concern was that their loved ones would come home alive. Secondly, they wanted to be able to communicate with their loved ones while we were there. They also wanted the leadership to keep them informed of what was happening.
It was confirmation that God was telling me our number one priority was to bring everybody home. We were not going to go over there to be heroes, we were going to do our job and not take extra risks that we didn’t need to. We did take calculated risks and we minimized and mitigated the risk every way we could. We had twenty-six soldiers earn Purple Hearts but not one of these soldiers died. How many brigades operated over there and didn’t lose a single person?
Once a week out I would send out emails and always remind families back home to continue to pray for us. I cannot emphasize enough how important that prayer was. When we got back to Jackson, Mississippi a news reporter asked me how, with three thousand soldiers, we operated for a year without losing anyone. I responded to him that it was divine intervention. It was a miracle that we actually brought everybody back to their families.
God of miracles, God of deliverance, God of salvation, thank you so much that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Please be our Rock, our Fortress, our Almighty King of Kings again today.
“When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’” (Daniel 6:20)