Soldier

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

In the Civil War, canons played a huge role in deciding the outcome of battles, and thus, the war itself. Each canon required up to eight men to operate and six…

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, was given a monumental task by President George W. Bush: find and terminate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of a brutal terror network known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

The Church and the military have a lot in common. Both involve large groups of people. Both have missions. Both exist for the benefit of others. Both require personal sacrifice.

But they also have one very remarkable difference.

Where did you meet your spouse? (Fellas, I apologize if I put you on the spot.) Did you meet her at college? Did you find him at church? Elevator? Job interview? Married couples have met in some unique places over the years.

But no one has ever met their spouse in a stranger place than William Tippins.

In August of 480 BC, a few hundred Spartans led by King Leonidas battled against 150,000 Persian warriors led by King Xerxes. The heavily outnumbered Greeks held their ground, repelled the invaders, and controlled the battle for three days.

But there was one thing King Leonidas couldn’t control…and it would prove fatal.

It’s the phone call no parent wants to receive. Ever. But on Thursday, February 28, 1991, Cecil and Ruth were both informed that their son, PFC. Clayton Carpenter, was killed in action in the Persian Gulf War. In an instant, their lives were changed.

Until the phone rang again.

General William Nelson caused lots of trouble for the Confederate Army that fought against him during the Civil War. The hulking man who stood over 6 feet tall and weighed more than 300lbs well-deserved his nickname of “Bull.”

But after dodging every bullet fired at him by the Confederate Army, he couldn’t dodge just one that was fired at him from the gun of a fellow Union general.

Near the end of Kyle’s medical internship at the city hospital, an elderly man walked in for treatment. It would prove to be a very difficult appointment for the future doctor as the old patient had a thick accent and no health insurance.

But those problems weren’t the biggest.

Daybreak on April 2, 1945. True, it was Easter Sunday, but the last thing Louis Boyle had on his mind was the resurrection of Jesus or church services. That’s because the young Marine was standing aboard the USS Sea Bass, one of 50,000 American soldiers, about to invade the island of Okinawa.