Jane Hampton Cook - Battlefields And Blessings Iraq/Afghanistan

Battlefields and Blessings Series

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

Copyright 2009 by Jane Cook, Jocelyn Green, and John Croushorn

Published by God and Country Press, an imprint of AMG Publishers

6815 Shallowford Rd.

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37421

Published in association with the literary agency of Credo Communications, LLC, (www.credocommunications.net)

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version (Authorized Version), which is in the public domain.

Print ISBN: 978-0-89957041-9

ePub ISBN: 978-1-61715-011-1

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-61715-040-1

First printingOctober 2009

Cover designed by Mike Meyers at Meyers Design, Kingwood, Texas

Interior design and typesetting by Reider Publishing Services, West Hollywood, California

Edited and proofread by Dan Penwell and Rick Steele

BATTLEFIELDS AND BLESSINGS and GOD AND COUNTRY PRESS are registered trademarks of AMG Publishers.

www.battlefieldsandblessings.com

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

Contents

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.

Ill 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 dont 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. Bushs educational initiative, but that page never was posted. Instead we created new postings, highlighting Americas 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 Americas 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 91:1112)

A Life-Saving Latte

Chaplain, Maj. Gen. (Ret.), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, United States Air Force

Weve 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 didnt make sense to Baldwin. He hadnt 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 Baldwins 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 oclock, 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 oclock 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. Thats when we saw the huge fireball on the other side of the Pentagon.

Baldwin then realized that his ten oclock 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 wasnt smoke or shock that drew him there. He wanted to be with the people who were hurting the most. His lifes 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)

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.