Editor’s note: This is a promotional piece written by the author of “Under His Wings.” The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of We Are The Mighty.
While you may know me as a cohost on FOX, my true role is something more narrowly tailored, and connected to you: I serve as a messenger. A prism through which your experiences, priorities and needs can shine through to decision makers and fellow patriots, through the veteran community and beyond – lending my voice to those who might need it, and amplifying the good works of those angels among us who strive day in and day out to serve those who served for us.
Thus my prayer in writing Under His Wings was to accurately and adequately carry these deeply intimate stories entrusted to me by these warfighters, some of whom had never told their story to anyone before, which heightened my commitment to stewarding their voices in the way they deserved.
It’s personal to me. The blood of my entire family who served runs through my veins. My father was a Commander in the U.S. Navy and I grew up in a loving, tight ship, the walls of which were adorned with all the medals and photographs and certificates of those ordinary, extraordinary service members. Thanks to my genealogist mom, my great-grandfather William’s Purple Heart, alongside all his service medals, hung proudly on our wall, and their service stories flowed freely. After a shell exploded underneath him in Jaulgonne, France, in WWI, he lay in a coma for 30 days – during which his wife was told he had been KIA. Imagine the reaction to the telegram 30 days later telling her he was alive! Subsequently removed from combat and fluent in German, he was assigned to work at a P.O.W. camp, photographs from which we still have to do this day.
The same week he was injured, his brother-in-law – my great great uncle- had his leg amputated while serving in General Patton’s American Expeditionary Force, Rainbow Division – before he made the Ultimate Sacrifice, laid to eternal rest in Suresnes, France. The memories of his sister’s handprint on his cross tombstone remain, visiting her brother twice during her own year and a half deployment one world war later, as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, serving as an anesthetist nurse. Her first procedure was a leg amputation, just as her brother endured. Every letter she wrote home we saved, providing a detailed, insightful, and sometimes humorous window into front-line nursing during WWII:
I will make a list of some things I want at the end of the letter but will not mention scotch or rye or rum, but if you can send some it will be more than welcome. Soak off the label and mark it Shampoo with an S or Rm or Ri in the corner. We pay £3 15d for 15 Scotchs and 10 Gins or about a total of $14 or about 60¢ a drink and that is too much for little me.
And as well, the attempts at boosting morale of each and every soldier – who Aunt Lou refers to as “boys,” especially at Christmastime:
Our Xmas tree has been made by gathering limbs of holly and tucking them in a musette bag hung on the wall. We are giving the enlisted men a party tonight so we spent yesterday going through our foot lockers gathering sufficient gifts, even if it’s ever so small, for each boy.
And reassuring her Gold Star mother, who had lost her son to war, that her remaining daughter was safe:
Don’t worry. As I sit here, the walls are the same, the boys speak my language, the sky is the same blue, the rain is just as wet and the snow just as white.
Her Gold Star mother, my great-great-grandmother Rosa, said goodbye to her son in France and laid her hand on his tombstone, part of President Coolidge’s Gold Star Mothers’ pilgrimage in 1930, alongside hundreds of other war widows and moms whose sons and husbands never made it home.
I am equally proud of my great cousin Anton’s service, whose varied posts as a U.S. Navy cook included a hospital ship, submarine, a gunship in the Yangtze River Patrol, and ultimately, living on Kaneohe Bay and stationed at Pearl Harbor. He was there with his family on that fateful December 7, 1941. He survived – and was laid to rest in the Gulf of Mexico, longitude 82 degrees, 52 minutes west, and latitude 27 degrees and 43 minutes north, a sailor eternally sleeping in his paradise of those warm waters.
Newer generations of my family represent service and sacrifice in the Global War On Terror, including my two married Naval aviator cousins Chris and Angie, who flew EP-3 variant missions on the same nights over Afghanistan. I know Chris was praying for his wife and her safety above his own, but apparently feels relief at surviving her, too, laughing: I’m just glad she didn’t shoot me down!
And those are just a small sampling of my family’s ordinary yet special stories I carry.
My role as messenger included embodying the support for our troops of millions of Americans during my USO tour to Iraq and Kuwait in 2009 as an NFL cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders.
Our itinerary included visiting the soldiers at the Joint Securities Station in Sadr City (to the shock of everyone there on the ground, who had never seen celebrity visits include that particularly volatile location). A few hours into our visit, our Blackhawk was diverted for a medevac, and we had to spend the night. I’ll never forget the commander in charge, then-Lt. Colonel Tim Karcher, telling me he had three daughters at home, and he was not going to sleep until we were safely out of there. We were like family – staying up all night, laughing and talking in the courtyard until the wee hours of the morning, bringing those soldiers what felt like a night from home. We called it the Sadr City slumber party, and Colonel Karcher later told me it was all the guys could talk about for three days.
Three days later, those soldiers drove over an IED. Colonel Karcher lost his legs, and on the ride back from his ex-fil, the guys ran over another IED. Sergeant Timothy David lost his life. It was his sixth tour of duty, and he was younger than I was. Colonel Karcher credits prayer with keeping him alive – many times, as his heart stopped, and he had to be resuscitated over and over. And he never questioned his faith. “God promised me eternal life! Not eternal legs!” he quipped, with his usual humor, looking into my eyes after we reunited 15 years later. His extraordinary story, and our very special reunion, are part of Under His Wings.
While history books detail the battles and heroism of war, the logistics and the statistics, they often miss the underlying spiritual strength that soldiers rely upon. This unseen force—God—provides comfort, courage, and protection amidst the terror and chaos of combat. God is always with these warfighters.
Sgt. Jeff Struecker, amidst the historic Battle of Mogadishu, was deeply anchored by the peace which surpasses all understanding, knowing what awaited him regardless of the battle’s outcome. If he made the Ultimate Sacrifice that day, he was going Home to his Lord and Savior, to eternal life. If he survived, he was headed home to his high school sweetheart, carrying their firstborn child. And the immense power of this peace, more so perhaps than how he survived Black Hawk Down, was what happened on the tarmac afterward- and how it impacted every single soldier he was with.
Combat medic SFC Jessica Harris found her hands steadied by prayer in the heat of an Iraqi firefight, subsequently learning – almost twenty years later, as this book headed to print – that every one of her massively injured soldiers she worked on survived.
Jeremiah Wilber, a Green Beret of Native American descent, found solace in a seemingly meaningless phrase from his childhood, until the meaning was revealed during an intense firefight in Iraq. In Vietnam, SGM Darryle Endfinger rediscovered his faith amidst a horrifying ambush in the thick of a jungle, crediting God with saving his life. National treasures and former-POWs Capt. Charlie Plumb and Col. Tom Moe survived years of torture through the strength of their faith – with prayers and stories that might surprise you.
The impact of war doesn’t end with the battle; it follows soldiers home. Steadfast spouses like Sarah Verardo manage the evolving realities of catastrophic wounds; Gold Star mother Laura De Roo carries on the legacy of her KIA son, Gabriel De Roo, known as “John 3:16” by his fellow soldiers, by spreading the gospel to those families in the aftermath of their unfathomable loss and those funeral ceremonies for these national heroes.
The Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world,” was embodied by US Navy Lt. Morgan Ortagus, who as State Department spokesperson, highlighted global human rights issues while visibly pregnant, providing a powerful symbol of hope and support for persecuted religious minority women at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
Even chaplains face challenges, as shared by Colonel Doug Collins and Colonel Anthony Randall, whose vastly different experiences on and off the battlefield, serving this country and shepherding their flocks, represent the vast spectrum of the way moral injuries and struggles with faith present, and how the ministers themselves are affected.
The psalmist tells us the Lord is our refuge and our fortress, our God in Whom we trust, under Whose wings we will be protected, His faithfulness our shield and rampart. For our warfighters, there is no greater test than the brutal demands of war. Violent battles and long deployments test resolve and courage; the anguish of loss due to the Ultimate Sacrifice and family separation distresses even the strongest hearts. Every role soldiers play in the constellation of combat requires above-and-beyond perseverance, determination, and bravery. Sometimes miracles are required. But with God, all things are possible. The stories in Under His Wings reveal just that.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” – Colossians 3:15