Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

Jane Hampton Cook, Jocelyn Green, John Croushorn Stories of Faith and Courage from the WAR IN IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN

Dedication

Dedicated to those who have lived loudly for liberty in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.

January 1 WHITE HOUSE RUN Jane Hampton Cook, Former White House Deputy Director of Internet News Services

“Take off your shoes and run,” the security officer called to me.

I’ll never forget that moment on September 11, 2001. Hundreds of my White House colleagues and I were evacuating the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), the grand Victorian building next door to the West Wing.

At less than five feet tall, I don’t have the leg length to run quickly, but I ran as fast I could to exit the White House complex. I remember the sick feeling I had when I learned that two planes had attacked the World Trade Center and a third plane had just hit the Pentagon. The possibility of a fourth plane striking the White House was very real.

On that unforgettable date, my job responsibility was developing and designing the content for the official White House website. I was working on a new page focusing on President George W. Bush’s educational initiative, but that page never was posted. Instead we created new postings, highlighting America’s multi-front response: diplomatic efforts, military attacks, financial blocking of terrorist financing, and humanitarian aid.

When I think about September 11, I remember two things: the courage of those first responders, many who lost their lives, and America’s strength, resilience, and commitment to freedom. A few days after the terrorist attacks, my mother had shared with me Psalms 91, a biblical passage that strengthened me during this difficult time. I found it fascinating that Psalm 91:1 (9-1-1) brought such as powerful message. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” and in verse 11, “he will command his angels concerning you.”

When the security officer called out to me to “take off my shoes and run” on that trying day, he was acting as an angel from God to guard me in all my ways.

Prayer:

Thank you for bringing guidance in times of extreme need.

“They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91:11–12)

January 2 A LIFE-SAVING LATTE Chaplain, Maj. Gen. (Ret.), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, United States Air Force

“We’ve been bombed,” a guard hollered into the cafeteria where retired Major General Charles Baldwin, a longtime leader of chaplains, was sitting and drinking a latte.

The announcement didn’t make sense to Baldwin. He hadn’t heard an explosion, and after more than thirty years in the Air Force, Baldwin knew what a bomb sounded like.

Although he was a General and a senior administrative leader, going to the Pentagon was a normal part of Baldwin’s daily routine. Stationed at nearby Bolling Air Force Base, he came to the Pentagon that morning to attend his first senior staff meeting as the new deputy chief of chaplains for the Air Force. He soon realized that nothing about September 11, 2001 would be routine.

“The meeting started at nine o’clock,” Baldwin said. Led by the Secretary of the Air Force, the meeting took place in the basement of building eight.

“We were about twenty minutes into the daily slide briefing, when someone interrupted. We turned our attention to the television and watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center Tower,” Baldwin recalled. Shocked, “we immediately adjourned.”

“I had a ten o’clock meeting on other side of the Pentagon, but stopped to get a latte in the cafeteria” Baldwin said.

“Shortly after I got my latte, a guard ordered an evacuation.” We immediately exited the building,” Baldwin said. “That’s when we saw the huge fireball on the other side of the Pentagon.”

Baldwin then realized that his ten o’clock meeting was located at the site of the black billowing smoke. Had he proceeded to his meeting earlier and not stopped to get a latte, he would have been in the wedge when it was hit.

The Pentagon had turned from an office building into the burning aftermath of a battlefield. Having served as a chaplain in Desert Storm a decade earlier and as a rescue pilot in Vietnam, Baldwin knew what to do.

“I went to the Sheraton hotel across from the Pentagon where they were bringing in the wounded. At that point I turned into a chaplain and went from couch to couch.” Baldwin spoke words of comfort to the patients triaged in the hotel before going to local hospitals. After about an hour, Baldwin decided to return to Ground Zero at the Pentagon. But it wasn’t smoke or shock that drew him there. He wanted to be with the people who were hurting the most. His life’s purpose led him in that moment to step in and simply be ready to face the tragedy head on.

Prayer:

Almighty God, you have given my life purpose and meaning. May I embrace the service you desire for me.

“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16)

January 3 MORE CHAPLAINS THAN NORMAL Chaplain, Maj. Gen. (Ret.), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, United States Air Force

“On an average day there are normally five or six chaplains in the Pentagon,” Chaplain Charlie Baldwin explained, “but on September 11, 2001, it was really an amazing thing. There were about thirty-five chaplains in the building.”