Battle Buddies

By John Carey

I must start this article with a confession. Sometimes, I get so emotionally involved in defending a friend or standing up for a soldier, that I become too passionate. Frankly, sometimes I just talk too much. Why? Because soldiers and their families are among the finest people in America. I love soldiers (and I’m pretty crazy about other service members, too).

Consider a true story from the outset of the war in Iraq. Eleven years ago, reporter Martin Savidge of CNN was embedded with a marine infantry battalion. On March 30, 2003, the reporter was talking with four young marines near his foxhole live on CNN. He told the nationwide audience how well the marines had looked out for him. He went on to describe the hardships these particular marines had endured, and how they all looked after one another.

Savidge told the soldiers he had cleared it with their commanders to use his video phone to call home. One marine immediately asked if his platoon sergeant could make the call instead, to his pregnant wife with whom he had not spoken in three months. A stunned Savidge, visibly moved by the request, simply nodded and the young marine ran off to find the sergeant.

After a few moments, Savidge recovered, turned to the other marines and asked who wanted to call home first. A second marine responded without a moment’s hesitation, “Sir, if it’s all the same to you, we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours [name removed] who was killed on March 23, 2003, near Nasiriya, to see how they are doing.”

At their request, Martin Savidge broke down completely and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was, “Where do they get young men like this?”

I echo his question: “Where do they get young men and women like this?” I have had the blessing of being a U.S. Army chaplain for 14 years. I have preached scores of sermons in military chapels at home and abroad, counseled hundreds, endured four deployments, including three in a time of war (Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan), and ministered to more than 7,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.

It’s possible that I may retire—or be retired—by the Army within the next few years. While I’ve never considered myself the best and brightest in the military, the Lord has truly blessed my work and me. I have had a wonderful opportunity to work with countless commanders, officers, non-commissioned officers, and other enlisted personnel, and I’ve had the chance to represent Jesus Christ on both homefront and battlefront.

I left the Armed Services 26 years ago, on June 16, 1988. I was proud of my two years of service, and my service provided the funds to return to Welch College. Although I was proud of my service, returning to the Army was not in my plans. I was ready to get on with life and glorify God wherever He wanted me.

I had never considered the ministry. I never heard or sensed a call, and I would have told you that God would have been desperate to call me. I had too many other great preachers in the family: my brother, Doug Carey of Crossroads FWB Church in Jenks, Oklahoma; my uncle, Wayne McDaniel, pastor of the First FWB Church in Sylacauga, Alabama (now retired). Frankly, if you had told me then that God would call me into a ministry to serve soldiers and their families, I would have suggested a psychiatric evaluation.

Isn’t it amazing what God can do? He saved me and blessed me with my wife Lynne and our sons Will and Bobby. And then, He called me to minister to soldiers. I am eternally grateful.

“Where do they get young men like this?”

The question has been asked countless times by politicians, pastors, news reporters, entertainers, and ordinary people like you and me. I imagine the late General Eisenhower asking himself that same question when the Allied Expeditionary Force headed to Normandy to liberate France, thus beginning the end of World War II. Where do we get young men and women to “serve a cause greater than self,” and sometimes die for that cause—the freedom of those they’re defending, even the freedoms many Americans take for granted.

We get these young men and women from Main Street, USA, from farmlands, and countrysides, and backwoods. We get them from cities, neighborhoods, and suburbs. We get them from healthy families and broken homes.

No matter where we get them, it’s our job to train these young men and women to do their job and defend their “battle-buddies,” their fellow soldiers. It’s our job to provide a home to them and their families, and to take care of them as they defend our great nation. It is my job—my calling—to minister to them and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This calling hasn’t changed in the face of flourishing political correctness. In recent years, right and wrong in the world have been turned upside down. It would be easy to become discouraged and take refuge in family and retirement. But this is not the time to let discouragement win. It is not time to quit the ministry here, any more than it’s time for pastors and our churches to close the doors of the church. Christians are not in a popularity contest, and we never will be.

Jesus is guiding those committed to following Him, regardless of what the world thinks. He told His disciples in John 15:18-19, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Now is not the time to allow the world to control and compromise our faith. Embrace John’s encouraging words, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We believers have something huge to cheer about, and it is something that will continue for eternity.

As for me, I will continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ out of love and appreciation for soldiers and families, including my own family. My oldest son, Will Carey, recently graduated with honors from Olivet Nazarene University. He graduated from the Army ROTC program and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Air Defense Artillery. I had the honor of swearing my son into active service, and his mom and brother pinned on his new rank. Will is currently at BOLC (Basic Officer Leadership Course). He’ll graduate soon and head anywhere the Army sends him as a platoon leader.

When I look at Will and my younger son Bobby, I think I know where “young men like these” come from…at least two of them. And, I thank God for them both.

About the Writer: A Free Will Baptist chaplain since July 2000, CH (MAJ) John Carey has served in the Global War on Terror in both Kuwait (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom II). John currently serves the 1st Medical Brigade based in Fort Hood, Texas.