An Unseen Enemy

“Each of us, the Lord has called us as soldiers of the cross. He has tasked us with entering enemy territory to rescue those who are perishing. Lots of people around us are being held captive by the enemy. We must liberate them at all costs. Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost, must also be our primary objective. We must leave the safety of the perimeter of the church. Launch out into a desert of lost souls and bring them home. This will not always be easy. Remember, there is no guarantee that we will return to base safely. The closer we come to the end, we might lose some, but we will press on until our mission is complete.” His words made those who were drowning in apathy become concerned for their well-being. They summoned and held Tank’s attentive heart. “Often people forget to minister to their family and friends. Reaching the lost on the streets of the city is something not considered. They like the warmth and safety of comfortable church meetings. They have no idea of the hell in which people live. All around us former soldiers suffer from the unseen wounds of war. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is destroying their lives, hand over fist, but as the church, do we care? Those we are to reach come from different walks of life. We face the challenges of various cultures and ethnicities. They are all people with different likes and dislikes. To reach them, to destroy the enemy who is holding them, we need to use different approaches and different weapons. In combat,…

United States, with a few light fluffy clouds listing lazily by. Each of them had a different vision of the future as they nervously waited for their new training partners. The young nervous Privates who had never seen the horrors of war eye glanced around at the others, looking for some kind of reassurance they had made the right choice. The Specialists’ whose lives were unaffected by the dangers of combat but had listened eagerly to their comrades stories of heroism and valor, longing to be…

How many will end up in a Christ-less eternity? How many will never know the joys and beauty of heaven because we gave up on our mission? Even when we meet, a situation that seems hopeless. When we have come to an end of ourselves, heaven will always come through for us. One day we were battling on a hill. Enemy forces were closing in all around me. I opened up with my M249. Next, I saw a tremendous blinding light. I could no longer see the advancing insurgents. My buddies thought I was KIA, as…

The Red Badge of Courage The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is the story of a young man named Henry Fleming who enlists with the Union Army in the hopes of becoming a war hero. Shortly after enlisting, the reality of his decision sets in. Instead of becoming a hero immediately, he finds himself waiting most of the time. When he finally has his first battle, he fires into the battle haze, never seeing his enemy. As the next battle approaches, Henry begins to run from the field. Even when…

the unit may need to delay the mission until the Soldier is present. In this situation, the delayed mission to meet with the village elder could have dire consequences. Arriving late or, worse, not arriving to the meeting would greatly disrespect the elder. The purpose of missions to meet with elders is to “win the hearts and minds” of the people in the conflict. Slighting a village elder could easily lead to a region’s support for our cause dwindling or turning to outright hostility toward our…

soldiers get scared in The Red Badge of Courage, but learning that others are scared to fight brings Henry a new found drive in fighting: hate. He hates the enemy, he wants to fight, and Henry aims to win. Courage can always be found in the strangest for these soldiers whether in letters or a photo because this is the reality that drives them to return home. Courage is not always an easy thing to come by, especially in war, and Crane does an amazing job depicting this in the realest sense…

War, as many people know, creates massive casualties of humans, hatred among humankind, and overall, catastrophe. Many soldiers, who are also the leading generation for our future, are forced to take part in what could be known as “homicide” as they would go on to kill their enemies, most of them belonging to same age. It is no wonder that the horribleness and atrocity of war is a common theme among poets. The literary works of Owen, Jarrell, and Komunyakaa asserts that war causes severe damages…

The fascinating thing about a war story is how it does not revolve solely around combat. They are actually more like a hurricane, in that while in the midst of what seems to be a hellacious and destructive disaster, the anxiety and fear before landfall as well as the aftermath, leaving a planet in ruins, are critical in understanding the entirety of the experience. Though the war is a key component to the story, many of the battles occur before and after and create deeper wounds than could ever…

“Would you be surprised if I told you that the Navy has credited you with... over 160 kills?” When Chris Kyle a Navy Seal Sniper during the Iraq war returned home he decided to see a therapist because he was having problems adjusting back to civilian life. During one of those sessions the therapist decided to ask him the question about the kills he is credited for. This credited kill amount is based off the amount of kills the Pentagon has credited him with. The movie “American Sniper” is based…

John Dillinger – The Creation of the First Public Enemy #1 During the early 1930’s the Great Depression and the collapsing banking system was not the only thing being talked about by many Americans; or a constant topic for newspapers and radio discussions. In 1933 and 1934 John Dillinger was a hot topic among people; as well as a main headline for the news. Who was John Dillinger and how could one man cause so much chaos, in so many places, in such a short amount of time? Was he born with…