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Zusatztext “A dramatic chronicle of courage and a testament of faith under fire that is as stirring as it is eloquent.” –Oliver North Informationen zum Autor Lt. Carey H. Cash is a battalion chaplain to infantry Marines in the United States Navy. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was the first ground combat element to cross the border into Iraq. He is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and was commissioned as a chaplain in 1999. Cash and his wife, Charity have five children, and live near Norfolk, Virginia. Klappentext "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” -Psalm 23:5 There are some places where you just don't expect to find God. For the men of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, downtown Baghdad was one of those places. Moving into the heart of Iraq and ever deeper into enemy territory, they found themselves face-to-face with the ruthless Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen militia. But when the smoke cleared, God's touch was clearly visible. Serving as a chaplain to the U.S. Marines, Lieutenant Carey Cash had witnessed the miracles that began in the desert of northern Kuwait, and found their culmination in one of the fiercest battles of Operation Iraqi Freedom. With vivid detail and gripping emotion, Lt. Cash gives a firsthand account of this amazing story-how the men of an entire battalion found God in the presence of their enemies.An Unexpected Feast “Wake up!” As the lights to our squad tent flickered to life, I struggled to wipe the sand and grit out of my eyes and to sit up in the sleeping bag that for the last six weeks had been home. I only needed to take one look at the face of my executive officer, Major Cal Worth, to realize what was happening. His eyes were like steel; his face, expressionless. My heart raced. “You have five hours to get your gear packed and yourselves into your vehicles. We’re moving north!” You could have heard a pin drop in the tent. It was an announcement we had been expecting for weeks, yet his words hit us like a train. “Any questions? No? Good! Then be advised there will be a mandatory staff meeting in thirty minutes. You’ll get more info then. Get moving!” With that he turned and walked out. For the next few moments, no one moved a muscle. We sat on the tops of our sleeping bags in shock, wrestling with the magnitude of what we’d just heard. We looked at one another, but no one said a thing. We didn’t have to. The words still lingered in the stale air of the tent. Then finally, as if we were responding to a choreographed script, every one of us jumped up and started packing our gear. Within minutes, I could tell that the message was permeating the entire camp. Senior Marines were barking out orders. Trucks, tanks, and High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs or Humvees) were being moved into place. More than one thousand infantrymen, living in a space no bigger than a parking lot, started packing their personal supplies, filling their canteens, double-checking the status of their ammunition, writing last-minute letters, and saying prayers. A young officer grabbed my arm. “Hey Chaplain, if something should happen to me, will you give this letter to my girl?” Hey, wait a minute, I thought. That’s just for the movies. The man who handed me the letter was a decorated combat veteran. He had been among the first to land deep in enemy territory in Afghanistan. He’d been through this before, and his face was quite serious. I took the letter. “It’s going to be okay,” I reassured him. Was I sure about that? I tucked his letter deep within my pack, quietly hoping that I would never have to pull it out. Meanwhile, the frenzy of activity intensified. I could see the camps next to ours springing to life as well. ...
