As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, I am reminded of the Fourth of July I spent in Iraq as a US Army chaplain. I was assigned to be the chaplain of the Corps Support Battalion, a unit that provides supplies, maintenance and trucks to other units. We arrived in Kuwait in March 2003, just two days after the war began. We then moved north into Iraq a month later, once our equipment had arrived from the US. At the time of our deployment, my unit had no ending date on our orders as to when we would come home. We did not find out until we were there almost one year. We finally left the end of February 2004.

This was my first deployment to a combat zone in the midst of war. It was a very frightening ordeal to not only go into a war but to be one of the first supply units to go with an Infantry Division and some tanks. This was not my first military deployment, however, since I had made several as a Navy chaplain assigned to supply ship. What made this different was the fact that my life was now my unit and I was in war whereas before while on the ship, the deployments were during peace.

The Fourth of July 2003 did not seem like any special day to any of us in Iraq. We went about our normal daily routines. It was like any other work day. And a big part of the routine was always being on edge and alert from any kind of enemy attack on our base, which were very frequent that year. The day did change in the mid afternoon. Some of the companies assigned to my battalion decided to host a BBQ with outdoor sporting events. The companies invited the rest of the battalion to join in. The food and competition were good. It was good to have something like home brought to us while we were far from our families, home and country.

I realized during my time in Iraq that what I and other US military personnel were experiencing was similar to what other generations had experienced. We, like the first Soldiers of the Revolution and every war thereafter, had to sacrifice a lot when called upon by our government to serve the best interest of our citizens. We left our comforts, our homes and our families to serve in dangerous situations. Yet we were not alone. Our families sacrificed a lot; maybe more. They had to say goodbye to each of us who left, not knowing if we would return, if they would receive a letter from the Pentagon in reference to our injuries, death or even presumed missing in action. They spent a lot of time worrying since the communication between us and them was lacking. The families did not know how we spent our days or what we faced.

Even though my job as a chaplain was to comfort and give hope to the soldiers in my units, I also needed the same from other chaplains. Every day I prayed God would not only watch over those of us who were deployed and in harm’s way, but also for the safety, comfort and strength of my family and all families back home. My family, in turn, prayed for my safe return and security. Today there are others serving this nation far from home and in dangerous situations. There are also families anxiously praying for their safety and return.

As we celebrate our freedoms set forth by other veterans and maintained by those in uniform today, I pray we remember all the sacrifices made on our behalf. God has blessed us with this land and with those willing to stand up against any tyranny put before us. May we never forget to thank God for His blessings.

Pastor Andrew Riggs
Trinity Lutheran Church
Carrollton, OH