[…]DeShazer had been on K.P. duty in an Army camp in California. When the radio announced the demolition of Pearl Harbor he shouted, “Jap, just wait and see what we’ll do to you!” One month later he volunteered for a secret mission with the Jimmy Doolittle Squadron—a surprise raid on Tokyo from the carrier Hornet. On April 18, 1942, DeShazer was one of the bombardiers filled with elation at getting his own revenge. After the bombing raid, they flew on towards China but ran out of fuel and were forced to parachute into Japanese-held territory. The next morning, DeShazer found […]
[…]had been serving as the gunnery officer on the Bainbridge, responsible for maintenance and operation of the ship’s guns. Already deployed for two months off the coast of Somalia, we were now in the slack period that inevitably comes after the initial thrill of heading overseas. The long, uneventful watches were catching up with the crew. Memories of home grew rosier as the weeks dragged by. Modern-Day Jonah It was my first deployment–far different than merely venturing away from home as I’d done before. Key among the differences was the absence of a “real church,” the kind that I grew […]
[…]very cognizant of Jon Shine’s life and death and impact on my life. He was killed in action only three years earlier in combat in Vietnam. My memory of his brief but inspired life and my own changed outlook on life–feeling a strong need to work with men as a spiritual mentor, as God led me to those men–convinced me that I needed to share my Christian testimony with my platoon of about 40 soldiers. I called them together one day, shortly after the alert, and sat them on the steps to our barracks. I spent about ten minutes sharing […]
[…]adultery, sex outside of marriage, or masturbation. The battle of sexual integrity is won only by achieving sexual purity. As defined in Every Man’s Battle, sexual purity is “when no sexual gratification comes from anyone or anything but your wife.”i God’s standard for sexual purity is straightforward, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity”(Ephesians 5:3). Once the books arrived, via donations from my church, I began a weekly study at the FOB chapel. With only about three months left in theater, I wanted to help the soldiers prepare […]
