Wing And A Prayer

"Peace should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the necessity and preserve them in peace. For peace is not sought in order to the kindling of war, but war is waged in order that peace be obtained. Therefore, even in waging war, cherish the spirit of the peacemaker, that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace; for as our Lord says: 'Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.'"

— Excerpt of letter from Saint Augustine, included in a pamphlet called “On Just War” made available to soldiers on base.

LOG BASE SEITZ, IRAQ — Spirituality and religion may have been bedrock for some soldiers before they arrived in Iraq, but for many of the nearly 150,000 men and women at war, a near miss with a mortar or becoming intimate with the smell of death is the best conversation starter with God. As they say, there are no atheists in foxholes.

"I haven't ever tried to talk to God as much as I have here," said Spc. Greg Dill, a Texan with the 598th Maintenance Company. Dill attended church occasionally at home but never considered himself religious — until now. Within two weeks of his arrival in Iraq, and on the day of his 24th birthday, his base suffered four separate mortar attacks.

Members of the 1544th Transportation Company from Paris, Ill., pray before each mission.

"You just don't think about your life so much or the way you're living it when you're at home," he said. "It's been one of the better life experiences being out here." But Dill distinguishes between God's presence over him and His creation of the situation in Iraq.

"I don't look at this situation as being God-made; I see it as being man-made," he said.

Regardless of denomination or belief, whether Southern Baptist, Wiccan or Roman Catholic, some of the closest calls can be explained only by way of a divine presence, soldiers say. Religion becomes the response to unanswerable questions and a crutch to help soldiers make it through difficult days.

"Soldiers in Iraq are scared, tired and lonely and they're away from their families and the comforts of home," said Maj. Nicholas Aranda, a New Mexico National Guardsman. Aranda, who came to Iraq with an already deeply-held belief in God, said that for people who already have faith, it just gets stronger. "Some put everything into God's hands, and even those casual believers or those who may have questioned their faith in the past will turn to prayer out here," he said.

Asked how a man of God reconciles living in and supporting a state of war where innocent people are killed, he gets very quiet. "That's a very difficult question. I'll have to pray on that, take it to God."

Religion also gains importance as it's a crucial time period for the majority of young men and women. For many it's their first time leaving home or traveling outside of the country; it's their first time meeting people of other races and cultures, and also the first time they will grapple with their own mortality.

Spc. Derrick Thigpen is a 21-year-old from Mississippi, and the youngest in his circle of friends. His faith took root in Iraq and during his deployment he leaned on others in his unit — who became his family — for knowledge, support and strength as he "searched his soul for answers" to questions about his future, his life and about God.

"This was such an important time in my life, so it really pushed me closer to God," said Thigpen. He saw Iraq as a matter of survival and simply doing one's job; it was all he could do to finish his work, stay alive and watch out for his buddies. "I always comfort myself knowing that God didn't bring me here to die. He brought me here to do a job."