24 hours a day - 7 days a week - fighter Jets scream just a couple hundred yards away, bombers take off, Helicopters come and go, transport planes are non stop. Soldiers mill about, contractors are building this and that - the dust of all the activity fills the air like a throw blanket, covering everything. Ten minutes into your day - your hair is covered in dust, you can taste the smoke and sewer smell - generally speaking - its next to impossible to find a peaceful moment, place or feeling. When you do - it becomes a noteworthy, or I guess "blogworthy" event.
Like all military posts you can find a chapel with church services without too much trouble. It's not uncommon to see chaplains on the flight line having quiet moments and prayers with soldiers getting on planes and helicopters and going into battle. So you find yourself looking to acquaint yourself with something familiar, and comfortable, and for me, that's my religious belief, and conviction.
So I did locate a worship meeting on Sunday for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ,(LDS) and so I made it a point of taking a little time out of my day to attend what we call "Sacrament Meeting". One Sunday a month, generally the first Sunday of the month, members of the LDS church "fast" for 2 meals, usually breakfast and lunch, and then donate
the equivalent amount of those 2 meals in monies to the Church's welfare program, in order to assist others in their immediate community who may be less fortunate. In addition, on these Sunday's the worship service is different, in that the meetings are called "fast and testimony" meeting.
Fast and testimony meetings are somewhat of an open forum, where members can have an opportunity to come to the pulpit and bear their own personal witness of the things which they know of their own experience is true. It is not intended to be a travelogue, or storytime, but occasionally there are experiences which people have that are truly miraculous, and they feel impressed to share them.
At this particular meeting, a US Service Member took the opportunity to share an experience which he had on October 16 of this year. This serviceman is a Warrant Office in the Army and pilots an Apache attack helicopter. He conveyed that he is very accustomed to being shot at while flying, and that there is always risk in what he does, and he's come to accept that be able to live with that. On this night, there was no moon, and it was a black night, and he was flying on the helicopters night flying system over a mountain range that was 6000 feet. He was flying at approximately 8000 feet.
The mountains in southern Afghanistan resemble those ranges you would find in the Mojave Desert of Nevada, AZ or California in the US. Very rugged, jagged, rocky peaks with desert floors on either side of the ranges. These traverses are dangerous because if you have to set down, there is no level ground, and landing is next impossible. If you do go down, it is typically a tragic event, and he relayed that he had lost one of his best friends in May to a situation where this pilot was forced to attempt a landing in just such terrain.
As he was flying over this range, his cockpit began filling with smoke. The "generator" in the helicopter caught fire, and within moments the cockpit was full of smoke, making it impossible for him to see or breath. Instinctively and necessarily he began descending to the put the helicopter on the ground.
He conveyed that he wishes he could say that he had the presence of mind to utter a prayer and ask for help, but things were happening too quickly and he merely recalls had the instantaneous thought of "Oh LORD, please help me..."
No sooner had this thought come into his mind than he was overcome with an absolutely overwhelming feeling to level off his aircraft and stop descending. He recognized this feeling and acted on it as an impression from the holy spirit. This action was in direct contradiction to all of his military training and what would seem the prudent course. As he did this, and got the helicopter leveled off, he all of the sudden felt an incredible vibration in the tail end of the aircraft, and then felt a snap. This pilot is also a maintenance test pilot, who flies aircraft that require maintenance and after they have been fixed, so this vibration and snap he felt told him that the generator shaft had sheared - which in this case was a good thing.
By that shaft shearing, the shaft quite spinning making the fire in the generator go out, and almost as quickly as the smoke filled his cockpit, it disappated, and he was able to breath and see again. He was able to limp his aircraft back to Kandahar Air Base unharmed, and with an absolute "testimony" and conviction that what he experienced was in fact the promptings of a power greater than himself, and his own ability on a course of action that was counter intiuitive and against all training and preparation.
He obeyed this prompting and as a result was able to share this experience with us.
There were other such instances relayed during this meeting, and it was just as powerful to me in my heart and my mind - as I felt the truth of what he was saying I found a moment of peace, and knew that there was some power greater than me who is watching out, and who knows me personally, and is caring for not only me, but my family.
