Veteran's Day

As I have listened to the stories of veterans who have faced combat, I have found a recurring theme among the Christian men.  Time after time I have heard it.  I also read it in the story of Dr. William Nesbitt Jr., a Navy doctor assigned to the 7th Naval Beach Battalion on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  The men and the contents of his ship would be assigned to the bloodiest beach of that day - Omaha Beach.  Hours before they would get to Omaha Beach, a very significant event occurred in Plymouth Harbor before they set out for Normandy. 

Dr. Nesbitt was on the bridge near the captain of his assault ship when orders came from the convoy commander for the ship to fall in line in the convloy to Normandy.  The captain radioed back that his ship had still not received their barrage balloons. His executive officer had gone to the dock to get them but had not returned.  Nesbitt explained that barrage balloons were large balloons that floated 150 or more feet above each ship.  Barrage balloons were attached to the bow and stern to make it difficult for attacking enemy aircraft to get a proper bombing run on the ships.  Every ship had theirs except for Nesbitt's ship.  They especially wanted them because the deck of this particular ship was full of trucks filled with high explosives.  Permission was granted to wait, then final orders came that they had to move out regardless.  Just as they were clearing the harbor, the executive officer caught up to the assault ship in a small boat; he had the balloons.

Because of the prolonged and bloody fighting on Omaha Beach, Nesbitt's ship was forced to sit off shore for hours.  Nesbitt and another officer were standing on deck watching the battle when a plane flew over.  Little attention was paid to it because of its U. S. markings but the plane passed over, banked and then began to dive at Nesbitt's ship.  The other officer shouted at Nesbitt to take cover, he recognized at that moment that it was a German plane with U. S. markings painted over its regular markings.  Just as he yelled this, the German plane released three bombs, but because of the balloons the pilot was not able to get the right angle on his bombing run and the bombs fell into the water near the ship.  The explosions caused some damage but the tons of explosives on deck were safe.  Because they had waited for the balloons and because they had arrived just in the nick of time, they were saved.

Words of scripture that he learned as a child in Sunday School came to Dr. Nesbitt's mind, "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." (Psalm 91:7)  Nesbitt needed those words when he did arrive to the bloody horror of Omaha Beach, but he as certain there on the ship hours before, God had spared his life.

That is recurring theme I have heard from many veterans.  In the horrors of war, God somehow spared them.  For some it was a Japanese shell that hit a ship feet away from one veteran, killing many but he was spared.  For another it was looking behind his plane on a bombing run over Germany and seeing the hole in anti-aircraft fire his plane had just flown through.  All of them felt in those moments God delivered them.

These stories make me grateful for what these men went through for our sake and they teach me lessons I am thankful I did not have to learn personally.  Lessons of God's power at work, even in the wars that men made.  Thank you veterans.  May your stories always teach us.

For the journey...

Tim