Deepertruth: Lent Calls Us To Focus Our Prayer

In Iraq I created a rosary group that I called “The Rosary Patrol” whose daily mission was to pray for those going out side the wire, for families separated due to the deployment, and for the needs of those present.

I always held my wife and family as specific prayer intentions. We were blessed to have several people across the United States who would join us in prayer. We saw amazing things take place as prayer moved mountains.

I believe this prayer devotion had an important impact on our missions as we dedicated them for our Battalion and our missions. Early December 2006 while deployed to Iraq, I was serving as a Medical Platoon Sergeant for a forward deployed Cavalry unit. I was suppose to have 44 Medics in my Platoon but only had 25 Medics. This required that I use all assets on missions. This included myself so I ended up conducting many missions as medical support.

On one such day, I was supporting our Scouts platoons as they were conducting patrols at nearby villages. We stopped at one small village to speak with some of the leaders of the community. I was quickly called as the “Sheik” had a 3 year old daughter who suffered some burns due to boiling water. The burns were days old so I simply placed dry sterile wrappings on the major injuries and gave them instructions and supplies.

The people living in the village were in fear of the enemy who would attack them randomly. I spoke to one man who lost an uncle who was killed by Terrorists. When this mission was completed and we arrived back on base, I made a plan to help our Command using the Medical support provided. I went to our Battalion Surgeon with a proposal to create a kit that Medics could use specific to helping Iraqi civilians so that they would not be working out of their aid bags.