Fight The Good Fight

Fight the Good Fight
Lessons from the Korean War
By
Robert G. Rayburn, Th. O.
President, Covenant College
Published by
The Covenont College Press

~ ·
Copyright, 1956
by
Robert G . Rayburn
Printed In the
United Slates of America
To LaVerne
whose love and confidence
brought light
in the darkest hours.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
PREFACE 7
I. THE Goon FIGHT OF FAITH 9
II. BE STRONG IN THE LORD 19
III. THE SOLDIER'S WEAPONS SS
IV. THE BELT OF TRUTH 61
v. THE SHIELD OFFAITH 69
VI. PRAYING ALWAYS - 79
VII. KNOW YouR ENEMY 95

Preface
During the writer's time in Korea it never occurred
to him that he would write a book about his experi-
ences there. The incidents described in this little vol-
ume were recorded in his diary and many of them,
together with the spiritual blessings the Lord had
given through them, were also shared with his family
and with Christian friends in letters.
It was not, however, until after he had returned to
civilian life and had been asked on many occasions in
churches all over the country to speak on his experi-
ences in Korea that any thought of recording them
in book form was entertained. Many friends who
testified to having received real blessing and help
from his testimony of God's faithfulness as it was re-
counted in these incidents urged the author to put
them into this form so that many more might share
that blessing. It was at their insistence that the work
was begun.
One thing is very important. It is that every reader
should realize that in recounting these personal ex-
periences the author has no desire to call attention to
himself, nor to his own accomplishments. Necessarily
the account is a very personal one, but in making
spiritual applications of the incidents recounted the
author would not want to be interpreted as setting
himself up as an example.
If this little volume proves of blessing and help to
those who read it, that will be ample reward for the
effort of writing it, and it will also indicate another
reason why the Lord took the author so unexpectedly
from his pastoral work in Wheaton, Illinois, to the
bleak, battle-scarred hills of far-off Korea.
He should like to pay tribute to the splendid group
of fine Christian soldiers with whom he worked in
close fellowship in the 187th Airborne Regimental
Combat Team. Some of them were won to the Lord
under his ministry in Korea and Japan. Others were
transferred to the regiment after his assignment to
it. The way in which they grew in grace and united
together in the bonds of Christian love to support the
work of their chaplain and to seek to win the unsaved
was a constant source of inspiration to him. Not
many of them are mentioned by name in this book,
but their lives and testimonies meant much to the
author. He is especially thankful that the Lord has
led several of them to Covenant College where they
are continuing as his students in the study of the
Word of God.
Pasadena, California
January, 1956
•
CHAPTER ONE
The Good Fight of Faith

"We do not war after the flesh: for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of
strong holds" ( II Corinthians IO :3, 4).
We were a t the thirty-eighth parallel, a line on the
map which a few years ago was without particular
significance to anybody but which because of the
force of earth-shaking circumstances had suddenly
become, just a few months before, exceedingly im-
portant to multitudes of people throughout the whole
world. That line was of very special interest and
significance to those o f us in the 187th Airborne
Regimental Combat Team, for the high command
had given to us the assignment of pushing the first
wedge back across the parallel, after the Chinese
spring offensive of 1951 had largely spent its main
force.
It was dawn and the dull light of the corning day
was beginning to give some substance to the high
hills which completely surrounded us. I was asleep
in my sleeping bag on the ground under a tent which
my assistant and I had hastily erected in the darkness
just a few hours earlier. vVe had taken little pains
to see that the tent was put in place properly. Over-
come with weariness, we had been concerned only
with the necessity of having some kind of shelter
over our heads in the event of rain falling before we
had to move. We had been in Korea long enough to
10 Fight tlte Good Fight
know that provision should a lways be made for rain!

All through the long, weary hours of the day be-
fore we had very slowly inched our way along in our
jeep in the convoy of trucks which was just behind
and keeping pace with the in fantrymen of our regi-
ment as they pushed fo rward against the Communist
enemy, taking ground from hi m slowly but steadily.
T hankful indeed to be riding in a j eep instead o f
marching over those terribly rough miles as the bulk
of the men in our outfit had had to do, we were
nevertheless only too glad when an hour or two a f ter
midnight the order had come back a long the column
that we were to turn off of the narrow little Korean
road up which we had been traveling at a snail's pace
for hours and go into bivouac in a field fo r the rest
of the night. W e were to get what sleep we could in
the remaining hours of darkness, for we would push
on at daybreak.
Suddenly I was awakened from the sleep of ex-
haustion by the famili ar yet somehow terro rizing
sound of incoming mortar fire. By the ti me one has
been in the thick of battle for a few days he will pick
up with his consciousness the very fir st whistle o f a n
incoming mortar or artillery shell. He learns to fla t-
ten himself out quickly on the earth if he does not
have a foxhole handy. By the time the second or
third shell hit our area both my assistant a nd I were
out of our sleeping bags, had our boots on a nd were
stumbling around in the semi-darkness seeking a
place of greater safety. Orders were shouted at us;
we were immediately to strike our own tents, get into
our trucks and disperse at top speed. There was no
delay in complying with these orders.
What had happened ? It did not take us long to
The Good Fight of Faith 11
discover. As our infantrymen had proceeded through

the valley the day before, in their effort to reach
their ultimate objective and get dug in before night-
fall, they had not been able to thoroughly flush
the hills of all enemy soldiers. One very sizable
group of Communists had apparently escaped obser-
vation and were well entrenched in bunkers and other
fortifications atop the hill which was nearest to and
looked down upon our bivouac area. If the enemy
soldiers had known that we were moving in under
the cover of darkness the night before, they had ap-
parently decided to do nothing about it until daylight.
But I am inclined to think that it was quite a surprise
to their sentries when, as the dawn broke over the
hills, they found that they were looking practically
straight down into a sizable camp of American sol-
diers. This camp was a choice military plum, for
there were not only large numbers of men, but there
were many vehicles and much valuable equipment in
it. It is not to be wondered at that the enemy let loose
with all the firepower that he could muster, which
fortunately for us was not too much.
The mortar fire was soon followed by the sharp
crackle of enemy machine guns. Some of these were
well below the crest of the hill. They were answered
by our own machine gunners on our perimeter defense
line. Then was heard the sharp crack of rifle fi re as
our outpost men began to discover targets for their
guns. A real fight was under way.
It became immediately evident that every resource
of our regiment which was available would have to be
used to wipe out that enemy strong point. As long
as the enemy remained up on that hill, commanding
such an excellent view of our main supply line reach-
12 Figlzt tlze Good Fight
ing to the men out in front of us, our regiment's
whole position was in jeopardy.
While intermittent small arms fire continued at
long range, our tanks were quickly brought into po-
sition in a rough semi-circle around the base of the
hill. In what seemed like an amazingly few seconds
the skillful gunners that manned the tanks had taken
accurate aim and the big guns on top and at the front
of the tanks were hurling their heavy charges of steel
into the fortifications at the top of the hill. It is an
awesome yet thrilling sight to stand directly behind
a heavy tank and watch as with each sharp crack
of the explosive charge a projectile screams its way
to the target with a message of death and destruction.
The eye can actually follow the shell. After a few
moments of this kind of pounding by the tanks I
wondered if there could possibly be any of the enemy
left alive in their bunkers, caves and foxholes at the
top of the hill. But there were!
In a little while the Air Force and the Marine Air
Wing were called in to help. Darting out of the
cloud-filled skies, fast jet planes swooped down upon
the hilltop. Their first passes were accompanied by
sharp bursts from their machine guns. They had been
called to our aid by radio, and it seemed that they were
taking a look at the situation for themselves to be sure
that they knew just what the targets were and just
where they were located on the crest of the ridge.
They emptied a few machine gun bullets into the en-
emy positions-just in case. One after another they
dived on the hill in this way. There followed a few
moments without apparent activity as the planes
seemed to regroup in the sky above us. Perhaps they
were getting radioed instructions from their com-
Tlw Good Fight of Faith 13
mander or from the observer on the ground who was
in constant touch with them. Then again they pointed
their sharp noses toward the hilltop and came in, this
time for the kill. One after another they emptied
huge tanks of napalm on the enemy positions. As
those tanks of j ellied gasoline hurtled to the earth
they spread searing flame over the whole crest of the
hill and down the sides for hundreds of feet in some
places. I found myself thinking with compassion
about the enemy soldiers caught in those searing
flames. I had seen napalm used in maneuvers. I had
even watched it from a distance in earlier days of
the fighting in Korea. But I had never been so close
before-so close that I could hear the crackle of the
flames as they hungrily licked up everything which
they touched. Because even this was not enough,
however, the planes, a few of them, returned once
more and dropped huge " block-buster" bombs on the
top of that desolate hill, then veered away and disap-
peared from view in the clouds or behind more distant
hills.
Surely, I thought, there could be nothing living on
the top of that hill after such a bombardment from
the gr ound and from the air. But the order was
given to the infantry-two companies-to start the
ascent to the top, and slowly, painstakingly the al-
r eady weary men of those two companies began to
climb toward the burned-out summit of the hill. It
became apparent, even to those of us who were
watching from a battalion aid station which had been
set up in the valley to receive any who might be
wounded, that there was still opposition to be en-
countered. At least one infantryman from each
platoon was wearing a bright panel of orange on his
14 Fight the Good Fight
back to identify himself and the men with him to
aircraft overhead. There is always the possibility
of the crew of an airplane shooting the wrong men
unless the pilot has positive means of identification.
Because of these bright panels which were also visible
to us at the base of the hill, we could watch the prog-
ress of the men as they inched their way to the top,
occasionally having to stop and take care of a stub-
born sniper. The enemy holdouts were able to wound
a few of our men, and these wounded ones were
brought back to the aid station by their buddies. Two
or three perished in close combat on those steep slopes.
It was not an easy hill to take.
Finally, less than two hours after the first platoon
of infantry had started up the hill, word was re-
ceived from one of the men who had carried a radio
on his back that the last vestige of enemy resistance
had been wiped out and the hill was secure ! Our
attention could once more be turned to the task of
pushing forward with the main force of our frontal
attack.
This incident which I have just described and
many others which I experienced during the months
of my service as a chaplain with the heroic men of
the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team in
Korea kept very forcibly before me the striking sim-
ilarity of much that I was seeing there on the field
of battle to that which a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ encounters in " the good fight of faith." Again
and again the Lord brought to my mind very pre-
cious truths from His Word and important spiritual
principles to be observed as I saw them illustrated
on the battlefield. As our men were putting out such
a great effort to capture that hill, I thought of what
The Good Fight of Faith 15
was going on before me, and God taught me a lesson.
Here was an enemy stronghold. Sitting where it
did, it was a serious threat to our whole position.
We could not proceed effectively with our advance
into enemy territory until this stronghold came down.
It might cost us a tank or two. It might cost us some
planes. It might cost us-and it did-the lives of
some infantrymen. But it had to come down, cost
what it may.
In the lives of believers the archenemy of the souls
of men, Satan himself, erects his strongholds. From
these he renders the believer impotent, robs him of
real victory and makes his life something less than
the joyous experience of fruitbearing for the glory
of God which it should be. Perhaps the reader will
instantly recognize that Satan has some "hold-outs"
in his own Ii f e. Most of us know our weak spots,
but if we have made provision for the flesh and al-
lowed ourselves to live with known sin in our lives,
we have permitted the devil to erect a strong point
from which he will press his attack against our lives.
The devil's strongholds are not confined to the lives
of individual believers. Sometimes they are found
in the corporate body, the Church, and must be dealt
with there. The important fact for all of us to re-
member is that the battle against evil cannot go
ahead powerfully and successfully unless the devil's
strongholds are brought down, no matter where they
may be found!
No one realized this more clearly than that great
spiritual warrior, the Apostle Paul. It was he who
wrote, "We do not war after the flesh: for the wea-
pons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the p1dling down of strongholds"
16 F ight tire Good Fight
( II Corinthians Io :3, 4 ). We must recognize that
there is a war on and get busy neutralizing the en-
trenchments of the enemy.
In the dim distant ages of eternity before the
worlds were created and before time began when Lu-
cifer, the son of the Morning, one of the highest of ·
created beings, lifted up his heart against the Lord
and said, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God . .. I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14 :1 3,
14), there was set in motion the g reat conflict of the
ages. It is mortal warfare between all that is good
and holy on one hand and all that is evil and corrupt
on the other. This conflict has raged in full fury
from the moment it began until this very hour. Every
tension which you feel, every trial that you experi-
ence, every crime that you read about, every sorrow
that you endure, every war, every injustice, every
pain is but a part of this dreadful conflict.
It will continue until Christ J esus our Lord has
"delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;
when he shall have put down all rule and all author-
ity and power."
Every person who becomes a Christian changes
sides in the great conflict of the ages. When a man
accepts Christ as his personal Saviour he leaves the
side of sin and darkness. H e chooses the side of
righteousness and light. Instead of continuing as a
child of Satan, he is born again into the household
of God. It is at this time that he walks, as it were,
right into the recruiting station and goes on active
duty as a soldier in the army of the King of Kings.
He enlists for battle with the Captain of his salvation!
But alas, how many believers there are who seem
unaware of the fact that theirs is a Ii fe of contention
The Good Fight of F aitii 17
against the evil forces of sin and Satan. The least
signs of conflict seem to throw them into dismay.
Being caught by the enemy in a condition of spiritual
dullness, their lives become fertile ground for the
erection of his strongholds; he is soon using such
believers to further his purposes instead of their
bringing him continually into def eat.
If you, dear reader, have enlisted in the age-long
struggle on the side o f the Lord of life, allow me to
ask you a question: H ow does the battle go with you?
So many have fallen by the wayside. The enemy has
reduced multitudes of believers to ineffectiveness by
erecting strongholds of resistance in their lives. Are
you willing to face honestly and openly before God
the clear orders o f His Word and what your response
to them has been?
God taught me a good many things about spiritual
warfare while I was on the battlefields of Korea as
I watched the spiritual precepts of His Word being
illustrated before my eyes. He implanted firmly in
my heart the fact that I could never expect spiritual
victory if I were willing to let the enemy erect strong-
holds in my Ii fe. The Communist enemy could never
have been driven back into the fastness of the higher
mountains of North K orea had we left him strong-
holds on the hills behind our lines in the south. The
devil will never be driven back in retreat from our
lives nor from those for whom we are spiritually
responsible if he reta ins strongholds from which to
sap our spiritual power.
It is my profound hope that in this little volume of
personal experiences I shall be able to open up to the
reader clearly that which God made so very clear to
me in the dust and mud, the disappointment and heart-
18 Fight IM Good Fight
ache, the problems and nightmares of a cruel war in
a far-away land. If my words cause even a few to
search their hearts, to re-examine their motives and
to re-evaluate their labors in the light of God's Word,
I shall be more than amply rewarded for having re-
corded the working of God in my own life.
I served my country with a justifiable sense of
pride, as I know all true American soldiers have
done. But there is a devotion in the heart of every
truly born-again believer which is deeper and more
all-consuming than that which he feels for his beloved
native land. It is that which he feels for the Saviour
who gave Himself that sinners might have life. If
in the bitter experiences of the Korean War I learned
the basic and important principles of spiritual war-
fare so that I can make them understandable in a
new and challenging way to the readers of t.his vol-
ume, I shall be thankful to the Lord for every hard-
ship that crossed my path and for every trial that
bore down upon my soul.
CHAPTER TWO
Be Strong in the Lord

"My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and
in the power of His might" (Ephesians
6 :10) .
It will not be difficult for the reader to imagine the
surprise and the shock I received when, in the midst
of a busy and happy pastorate at the College Church
on the edge of the Wheaton College campus in
Wheaton, Illinois, I suddenly received a summons
to report for a physical examination preliminary to
orders recalling me to active duty in the army. I
had foreseen this possibility when the Korean fight-
ing had first broken out and I had gone in to the of-
fice of the Fifth Army Chaplain in Chicago to in-
quire of him as to the probability of my being recalled
to active duty. He had assured me that the chances
were very slim indeed. In fact, his words had been
very reassuring. In substance he had said, "You
can just forget about being recalled, Chaplain, unless
this situation gets much worse. We are going to take
care of this emergency with those chaplains who
volunteer to return to active duty and with those who
are already on active duty status. You do not need
to worry." I realize full well that this good chaplain
meant every word he said to me. But unfortunately,
as it turned out, he was in no position to fulfill the
things which he had promised. This was just another
one of the ways in which the Lord made me realize
again the great contrast which there is between His
promises, not one of which can fail, for He has the
power and the will to fulfill them, and the promises
of men which are found so often to fail.
I had served as a chaplain in W arid War II and
had had combat experience with the field artillery
in the European theatre of war. I was in France
when my first baby girl was born in far off Seattle,
Washington. I had known something of the heart-
aches and trials of war, not only as I had seen it on
the battlefield, but also from the separations and lone-
liness I had personally endured. It was certainly
not from any love of military life as such, nor from
any desire to again go through the experiences that
I had encountered in war that I had at the time of
my discharge from the service after the end of World
War II allowed my name to be kept on the list of in-
active reservists. I find it difficult to determine just
why I did stay in the reserves at all. I had no desire
to be actively engaged in a reserve unit. Perhaps it
was the realization that if and when another conflict
came and America's finest young men were called off
to war, I would certainly want to be with them, doing
what I could, that made me stay in the reserves. Per-
haps it may have been just a feeling of patriotism and
a desire to do that little bit for my country. I had
been assured that the " inactive" reservists would be
the very last to be called in the event of an emergency,
that all the "active" reservists and the National Guard
would go first! (This was always an excellent topic
for bitter jesting on the part of many men in Korea I)
But I am sure that the one most significant reason
why I retained my status in the reserves was that the
sovereign God who guides and guards my life had in
His wisdom and grace ordained that I should have
Be Strong in the Lord 21
the rich experiences which were my lot in Korea, and

He had a job for me to do there!
When first the summons came and I faced the ne-
cessity of leaving my family, my friends and the work
that I loved and in which the Lord had so wonderfully
blessed me, a feeling of resentment rose within me.
This was not fair. Had I not done my duty for the
country in the last war? Weren't there others who
had not already sacrificed years with their families
who could step in and meet this present need? So
ran my thoughts. But then the Holy Spirit Himself
began to speak sharply and plainly to me. I had
preached to young people that when they turned their
lives over to the Lord He made no errors in what
He did with them. His ways were perfect and even
though they should be called upon to face difficult
things which were not of their own choosing, He
would, according to His own promise, work every-
thing "together for good to them that love God"
(Romans 8 :28). Had I preached to others some-
thing I was not willing to believe firmly for myself?
Rebuked in heart and spirit, I confessed my sin and
weakness to the Lord and promised Him that I
would willingly go wherever He led me.
The physical ~"amination was a "pushover." Doc-
tors have tried in vain many times to find anything
wrong with the healthy body that the Lord gave me.
In a few days I found myself holding several copies
of lengthy orders recalling me to extended active duty
and assigning me to Camp Carson, Colorado. Again
I returned to the friendly Colonel who was Fifth
Army Chaplain to ask him if I would be sent over-
seas soon. I was concerned for my family. We
would need to move out of the parsonage in Wheaton,
and if I was to be out of the country for an extended
period, I wanted to make sure that they were well
provided for until my return. Perhaps I would need
to buy a home in Wheaton. Yet I desired to have
my dear ones with me as long as possible.
Again the chaplain was most reassuring. "No,
Chaplain," he said to me, "you don't need to worry
about going overseas very soon. You are just re-
called for twenty-one months of active duty, and you
will probably have all of that right here in the States.
I think you can safely count on a year at least before
you'll be ordered overseas, and you probably will not
go over even then. I would by all means suggest that
you make plans to take your family with you."
Reporting in to Camp Carson on December I,
1950, I began immediately to look for a satisfactory
home for my wife, our two daughters and the baby
son who had arrived in August. Thanks to the as-
sistance of a kind Christian friend, I was able to send
word to my wife before Christmas that a lovely little
house had been located and that she should make ar-
rangements to have the furniture picked up and come
out to Colorado just as quickly as possible. The day
before the moving van was to have pulled up in front
of our home to load our household goods for the trip
west, I received a telegram from the War Department
telling me I was to report, after a short furlough, to
Camp Stoneman, California, for shipment to the Far
East!
In spite of the former victory, the same spiritual
conflict ensued which had followed my recall to ac-
tive duty. Why should this happen to me? Was it
fair when there were a number of chaplains in that
same camp who had never spent a day in combat duty?
But again the Lord gained a real victory in my life.
I recognized and confessed my complaints as sin.
I realized clearly that His hand was guiding. I
gained a deep convicton that He had some special
niche for me to fill, and that He would grant me all
the strength I needed for the experiences that lay
ahead.
Those last few days with my loved ones rushed
by, and before I could hardly realize it, I was on
board a U. S. Navy transport sailing out through
the Golden Gate. There was a strange mixture of
sentiments crowding my heart that day. There was
loneliness and there was heartache. But I would not
be honest if I did not admit to a certain exhilaration
in the anticipation of that which, although it was
unknown to me at the time, I knew the Lord had
ordered for me.
The days aboard ship were days of great spiritual
blessing. Having little responsibility because there
were a number of chaplains on board and we shared
the services which were held, I spent many, many
hours in a lonely spot high on the ship near one of
the large funnels where I found I would never be
disturbed. There was no distraction there, nothing
to look at except the endless vista of the sea. I sat
for hours with my Bible and enjoyed deep, sweet
communion with the Lord. For the first time in my
life, during those days I had all the time that I felt
I really wanted for prayer. The Lord talked to me
from the pages of His Word, and I talked with Him
as my heart rose .in prayer for the loved ones left
behind, for the dear friends who were laboring for
Him all over the world, and for the ministry which
Jay ahead of me. What a time of soul refreshing
and strengthening it was! The Lord knew what was
ahead and He knew I needed that heartsearching,
uplifting time with Him.
Two prayers particularly occupied my times alone
with the Lord during all of those days. One was for
the Lord's definite leading as to the outfit with which
I should serve. Nothing can be worse for a Chris-
tian than to be out of the Lord' s will. A believer
may have everything that money can buy, and be
doing just what he thinks he most wants to do and
be utterly miserable if he is not where his Lord wants
him to be. On the other hand, he may be sitting in
the mud of a Korean rice paddy without any com-
forts or conveniences, far from those who are dear
to him on earth and his heart will be singing a glad
song if he is conscious of the fact that he is in the
Lord's will, where the Lord wants him to be. I did
not want to miss God' s perfect, directive will.
My second most earnest prayer was that the Lord
would give me an assistant who would be a real
Christian and a definite asset in my work. I had
urged my wife to join me specially in this prayer. A
chaplain's enlisted man assistant can make him or
break him with the other enlisted men. If he has a
good, clear, consistent testimony for the Lord, his
help is invaluable. If his life is not consistent as he
lives before the other men, he can tear down the best
efforts of the chaplain. I asked the Lord to give me
the young man of His own choosing.
After eleven days aboard ship, in which I had the
joy of winning eleven fellows to the Lord, we arrived
in the harbor of Yokohama, Japan. It was a dreary,
rainy day, and most of us felt keen disappointment
at the drabness of everything that we saw through
I
Be Str01ig in the Lord 25

the drizzling rain. But we were given very little
t ime to see Japan. We were hurriedly processed at
nearby Camp Drake and in less than two days were
on our way by rail to Sasebo on the island of Kyu-
shu where we took ship again for Korea.
It was only an overnight trip to Korea. Early in
the morning we steamed into the harbor of Pusan.
With what curiosity we looked upon Korean shores!
\,Vhat did this land hold for us? How long would
we be there? A thousand questions ran through
our minds as we watched the great barren hills sur-
rounding the city of Pusan draw nearer and nearer.
If time and space would permit I could record many
things of interest to the reader concerning the amaz-
ing country of Korea, but this is not intended to be a
record of travel or a journal of adventure. It is not
even a description of conditions in K orea. It is an
account of experiences which have had deep spiritual
significance, and for that reason much which might
be of interest to many must be eliminated.
We were kept overnight in crude quarters in Pusan
and the ne>..-t day were loaded on a train for a long,
uncomfortable ride to Taegu, which was at that time
the headquarters of the Eighth U. S. Army in Korea,
(EUSAK), and the hub of the whole war effort.
None of us had ever been on such a train before.
It was impossible to be comfortable. We were glad
indeed, after what seemed interminable hours on
board, punctuated by frequent stops at tiny Korean
villages, to hear the orders to get our gear on our
backs for we were nearing Taegu and were about
ready to detrain. We stepped off that train in Taegu
in the middle of the night, and the sudden realiza-
tion took hold of us that we were in a war zone !
There were no lights to be seen anywhere. I hadn't
been in a total blackout since the days of World War
II in Europe. But here was the inky darkness of the
blackout, and blackout meant war! How quickly we
had stepped from the bustling streets of America to
the drab, dreary battlefield which was Korea.
With the efficiency that is characteristic of the
United States Army in such operations, we were im-
mediately loaded into trucks and taken to the Eighth
Army l{eadquarters compound. There we were as-
signed quarters with quite comfortable bunks ( at
least compared to the train we had been riding on all
day and half the night!) and told that we should get
some sleep and we would be given further instruc-
tions and orders in the morning.
Eight of us chaplains had traveled together in a
small party all the way from Camp Stoneman, Cali-
fornia. We had shared the same huge stateroom
on the ship across the Pacific. We had naturally had
an opportunity to get well acquainted on our journey;
all of us were wondering just where we would be go-
ing when our party was broken up. According to
orders we received, we gathered in the office of the
Eighth Army Chaplain immediately after breakfast
the next morning. Chaplain Tobey, a Baptist who
was a full Colonel in the Regular Army, had the po-
sition of Eighth Army Chaplain. He gave us a few
words of warm greeting, as he had the night before
when he had met us at the railroad station upon ar-
rival. He explained how difficult had been his job
in recent months because of the very serious shortage
of chaplains. Some had been killed in the early days
of the fighting, a few had been taken prisoner by the
Communists, others had been wounded and evacuated.
Be Strong i1i the Lord 27
Altogether there were many units without proper
chaplain coverage. We were the very first group
of chaplain replacements that had arrived since the
outbreak of the fighting. The few others that had
come had arrived as single replacements.
Chaplain Tobey explained that because of the
acute shortage he had many units to which he could
have sent each one of us. His had been a difficult
task in trying to determine where the need was the
greatest and to which organization each chaplain
should be sent.
"But I have done the best I could, men, and I have
your a~signments ready for you," he explained. "I
know that you are anxious to get on your way to
your own organizations, and I am anxious to have
you go, for the sake of the men to whom you are
to minister. I will give you your assignments at once,
then arrange to have your orders cut and perhaps you
can get on your way to your own outfits by tomor-
row. However, before I give any of you an assign-
ment I have one post that I want to fill, if possible.
We have a paratroop regiment here in Korea and
they need a chaplain. As you know all paratroopers
are volunteers, so I cannot assign one of you to that
regiment unless you volunteer for the job. Is there
anyone here who would be willing to volunteer for
the airborne?"
There was a moment of silence!
I said nothing. I had had an opportunity to go into
the airborne when I was in Chaplain's School at
Harvard University during World War II, and I
had flatly turned it down then. I was even less inter-
ested in being a paratrooper now than I had been
then. I was several years older, my bones were that
28 Fight th-e Good Fight
much more brittle and to be honest, there just wasn't
anything about jumping out of airplanes that ap-
pealed to me. There are some young men who get
a thrill out of taking chances. They are thrilled even
though they may be frightened. But I have never
been the "daredevil" type. I have always been con-
servative-in theology as well as in my manner of
life. I kept very quiet. Indeed, there was nothing I
wished to say.
In a few minutes one of the other chaplains who
was on the end of the semicircle in which we were
sitting in the office said, "Tell us what would be in-
volved, Chaplain. I was in the Air Force during the
last war. The Air Force and the Airborne sound
something alike. Perhaps I would take that job."
"First of all," said Chaplain Tobey, "tell me what
is your denomination?"
"I am a Roman Catholic," was the reply.
"I am sorry, Chaplain, but that eliminates you.
We already have a Catholic chaplain in that regiment.
We need a Protestant."
This statement narrowed down the selection con-
siderably. Of the eight chaplains, five were Roman
Catholics. We three Protestants looked at one an-
other.
"Count me out," said Chaplain Niermann, a Mis-
souri Synod Lutheran, "I am past fifty years of age,
and too old to be jumping out of airplanes!"
"I'm afraid you'll have to count me out, too," said
Chaplain Larry Staples, a congenial Methodist with
whom I had formed a fine friendship. "I have just
recently recovered from an abdominal operation, and
I do not believe that I am in physical condition for
anything like that."
Be Strong fo the Lord 29
It doesn't take a brilliant mathematician to know
how many were left. All eyes were on me !
I started to say, "Count me out, too. I am not in-
terested in jumping out of airplanes." But I didn't.
As I started to speak, I was restrained. I am sure it
was the work of the Holy Spirit. I thought, "All the
way over here I have been praying earnestly that the
Lord would lead me to just the outfit where He
wants me to work. Suppose this is it!" I must con-
fess the prospect actually frightened me. But I knew
that I dared not put myself outside the Lord's will.
To be going into the front Jines of battle was bad
enough, but to be going out of the Lord's will was
something for which I had no desire. I believe, how-
ever, that I was the most surprised one in the group
when I heard myself saying, "Chaplain, if you will
give me a little time to pray about it, I might take
that assignment."
I shall never forget the look I got from the chap-
lain. I am not sure but what he felt he had found
some kind of a queer specimen.
"How long will it take?" he asked me.
"I believe I could let you know definitely in the
morning, if that would not be too long to wait," I
replied.
"Oh, no, I can give you twenty-four hours," was
his immediate answer. "Go ahead and take your time
and find out. Let me know as soon as you do."
I knew the Lord had promised in so many places
in His Word that He would give me the guidance
that I needed in any situation of my life. "Thine ears
shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and
when ye turn to the left" (Isaiah 30 :2 I). "I will in-
struct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go : I will guide thee with mine eye" ( Psalm 32 :8).
These were not idle words, but the promises of the
God of all the universe and made for me because I
was His own. More than this, I knew that the Lord
had full knowledge of my time schedule and if it
was necessary for me to have guidance in a hurry, He
was perfectly able to give it to me in a hurry. Had
there been thirty days in which I could make my
decision, I could have reckoned that the Lord would
probably test me most of those thirty days to see
whether I really believed He would guide me or not.
But since I had only twenty-four hours, I felt con-
fident that He would give me clear and unmistakable
guidance in that time.
So I was cast upon the Lord! And that is a won-
derful situation in which to be. One does not care
about the opinions of others. They do not matter.
He doesn't seek the advice of friends, for actually
advice counts for nothing. When one is cast in such
a way upon the Lord, he wants only to know what the
Lord's will is. That is all that matters. It was all
that mattered to me now.
I took my Bible and went into the chapel, not be-
cause I feel it is possible to get any closer to the
Lord in a church or chapel than in other places, but
because that was the only place I knew on that bus-
tling army compound where I could find quiet and be
alone. Everywhere else there were groups of men,
even in our barracks quarters. Sitting down in one
of the pews, I put my Bible on my knee. I had gone
to get it from my duffel bag before coming to the
chapel. I was not thumbing through it; it was closed.
I was expecting to read it and to meditate in it after
I had prayed. The scripture says, "Thy Word is a
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
(Psalm 119 :105), and it is my firm conviction that
if we want to know where our pathway is to lead
and where our feet are to walk, the best place to look
is into that Book which God has called the Light and
the Lamp. I am not suggesting for a minute that
one should ever just open the book, put his finger on
a verse and expect to get guidance that way, but I
have learned from personal experience that through
the careful and prayerful reading of the Word, God
makes His way more clear to me than in any other
way. It is only reasonable to expect that it should
be so, in the light of what the verse I have quoted
above and many others tell us.
Shutting everything else out of my mind, I began
to pray. I poured out my heart to the Lord. I con-
fessed frankly that there were two things which
troubled me greatly, and I must know what His will
for me was. First, I confessed that I was afraid of
jumping out of an airplane. Every paratrooper I've
talked to since admits frankly that he's afraid of it,
too. I seriously question whether a man could jump
out of a plane hundreds of feet from the ground and
be without a certain amount of fear. Many times one
does things which he would confess to doing with
fear. The Lord knew that I was frightened at the
idea of it.
Then I told the Lord of my great concern for my
wife and my three precious children back home. My
wife certainly knew that I had had no training as a
paratrooper. If she heard that I had gone into an
airborne unit in a combat zone I was afraid she might
think I had been unnecessarily inconsiderate of her
welfare and that of my children. It was bad enough
for her that I was going into the front lines. I did
not know how she would feel if she heard that I was
going that way.
I was laying these thoughts before the Lord when
suddenly, as I prayed, He stopped me, and He began
to speak to me. It was not with an audible voice.
I do not claim to have heard anything. But it was
a voice-as real as any voice has ever been in my
consciousness. I know it was His voice, for the
words were His Word. I could not think for a mo-
ment just where the verses were found. I had no
remembrance of ever having consciously memorized
them, but this is what He began to say to me:
"Because tho1t hast made the Lord, which is
my refnge, even the most High, thy habitatfo,~;
there shall no evil befall thee, 1ieither shall any
plague come nigh thy dwelling."
Quick as a flash, as those words from the ninety-

first Psalm struck my consciousness, I realized that
the Lord had given me a direct answer to both of my
problems. "There shall no evil befall thee." That
took care of me, jumping out of airplanes in Korea!
"Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."
That took care of LaVerne and the children in far-
off Wheaton, Illinois. My dwelling was thousands of
miles across the sea, but my God was there, too. I
knew that I had had my answer. God had given me
the leading for which I had asked.
However, because He is the one who delights to
do the "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask
or think," He continued speaking to me with the very
next verse:
Be Strong in tlze Lord 33
"For he slzaU give his aiigels cliarge over
thee, to keep th~e in all thy ways. They sliall
bear thee 1tp in their hands, lest thoii dash thy
foot against a stone!"
Let me ask the reader a question. Could you think

of a more wonderful promise anywhere in God's
Word for a paratrooper? I am sure you could not.
That promise is better than any parachute that was
ever made! I know those verses have a primary ap-
plication to another situation, but they were God's
personal and precious promise to me that day, and I
shall never escape from the thrill which they gave
me as I realized how completely God had met my need
and answered my humble petition. I could actually
look forward to being a paratrooper with eagerness,
for I knew without question that the Lord wanted
me in the airborne!
I returned to Chaplain Tobey, informed him, to
his apparent delight, that I would be happy to take
the assignment to the airborne regiment, and then
went to write my wife a Jetter to explain the situ-
ation to her. My orders were to be cut the following
day, but .the Catholic Chaplain of the 187th Regi-
mental Combat Team was notified by telephone that
there was a new Protestant chaplain for the regiment
waiting at Eighth Army Headquarters. He sent
word that he would come for me the next day.
It was not a long trip to the bivouac area of the
187th. The Combat team was in camp in a large ap-
ple orchard just at the edge of what was then the
largest airbase in operation in Korea, just a few
miles east of the city of Taegu. When Chaplain
Dunne, the Catholic priest, and his assistant came
for me, I was received with the warmest cordiality.
' 34 Fight the Good Fight
My gear was loaded into his jeep, and we started
off over what turned out to be six or seven miles of
the roughest road upon which I had ever ridden.
Most of the credit for the terrible condition of the
road could be given to the continual stream of heavy
army vehicles which churned the dust of the road
into billowy masses of clouds that choked and nearly
smothered not only the poor Koreans who were
forced for lack of better transportation to walk along
its sides but also all the occupants of any of the army
trucks. This was my initiation into jeep travel in
Korea. It was a proper initiation, for although I
traveled for hundreds of miles by jeep in all parts
of South Korea and in some parts of North Korea
in the months that followed, I never found a rougher
stretch of road nor one more continually covered by
a pall of dust.
We crossed a large bridge over a shallow river
where I could see scores of Korean women beating
the family clothes against flat stones as they did their
laundry in this primitive way. Just beyond the bridge
we turned into the camp area of the organization
which was to be from that time until I returned to
the States my own outfit. The apple orchard in which
the tents were set up was surrounded by a high barbed
wire. There was a sentry on the gate, which was
closed after we had been identified and passed
through. Our driver followed a narrow lane between
two rows of tents, and when he had reached the ap-
proximate middle of the camp area, he stopped in
front of a large squad-size tent.
"Well, Chaplain, this is home," said the friendly
Catholic Chaplain Dunne, Regimental Chaplain for
the I 87th, as he and his assistant helped pull out my
Be Strong in tire Lord 35
duffel bag and other belongings and led the way into
the tent. I discovered immediately that the tent was
occupied, not only by the chaplain's section, but also
by the Red Cross representative, his assistant and a
Korean interpreter. In anticipation of my arrival one
corner of the tent had been cleared of the possessions
of others, an army cot had been set up and on this
cot my sleeping bag was soon deposited and unrolled.
"Here is your own private washstand," said Chap-
lain Dunne, pointing to a steel helmet which had been
ingeniously set upside down on a homemade wood
stand.
I was introduced to all of the men in the tent. I
was to get to know them very well in the coming
days. They seemed so friendly and hospitable that I
thought to myself, "The airborne is for me! I've
never before experienced such a warm reception in
any army unit." But then, before many minutes
had passed, I discovered at least part of the secret
behind the cordial reception.
"Sit down, Rayburn," said Chaplain Dunne, when,
after five or ten minutes of arranging my things I
looked like I was quite well settled. "I have some in-
formation which will be of interest to you. I suppose
you noticed the sentries on the gate when you came
into camp. That means, as you may already know,
that we are on the alert. You got in here, but you
can't get out. We have a combat jump behind the
enemy lines day after tomorrow."
My eyes must have displayed my amazement. I
know that I gulped.
"But I couldn't go along on a combat jump. I don't
know a thing about parachuting. Chaplain Tobey
assured me at Eighth Army Headquarters that I
would be given several weeks of training and several
practice jumps before I'd be required to make a
combat jump."
"Oh, I know, Chaplain, but there's really nothing
to this jumping," was the reply. "I'll show you all
you need to know about it tomorrow, and then you
can come along and go with us. You'll really be
'in' with the men if you do."
"Well, I don't know. It sounds a little bit too
soon for me." But even as I said that I was reminded
that the Lord had known all about this jump when He
had given me His precious promises, and perhaps it
was for this very mission that he had brought me to
this unit, so I added, "But I'll think about it and
perhaps I'll go."
"You could, of course, come up on the land tail, but
no paratrooper ever wants to do that," was the con-
tribution of the chaplain's assistant. I was to learn
that the land tail consisted of all the vehicles of the
airborne unit which were not dropped with the troops
in combat and which were driven up to the unit after
the tanks had broken through the enemy lines and
established contact on the ground.
A few moments later we stepped outside of the
tent and were standing absorbed in conversation
about jumping. It was all new to me, and if I was
even considering going along on a combat jump so
soon, I wanted to learn everything I could about
jumping. l discovered that it was a topic of endless
conversation in any airborne unit. It was never nec-
essary to more than begin a chat with one of the
men before we were talking about jumping. I could
easily find out each man's reaction to various phases
of that exciting occupation. Suddenly Chaplain
.
Be Stro1tg i1t the Lord 37
Dunne stopped me and pointed to an enlisted man
a few yards away who was walking toward us.
"Do you see that young fell ow coming toward
us?" he asked. "That's a chap who would like to
be your assistant. You don't have to take him if you
don't want him, for he is a rifleman and we can al-
ways send him back to a line company. But he has
been working in the chaplain's section for a time and
has had a little experience with another chaplain.
He would like to work for you. Try h im out a few
days and see how you like him."
By this time the young man was very near, walk-
ing straight toward us, so the chaplain could say no
more. He simply introduced us.
"Chaplain Rayburn, this is Corporal Cliff Brewton.
Cliff, I want you to meet our new chaplain, Chaplain
Rayburn."
"Hello, Cliff," I said extending my hand to him
after receiving a snappy salute. The young corporal
took my hand and gave m e a good firm handshake
as he spoke a word of cordial greeting and looked
straight into my eyes with a bright, broad smile on
his fine face. I was so immediately impressed with
him that I said, even before I let go of his hand, "You
look to me, Cliff, as though you might know the
Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour."
"Yes, sir, I do!" He answered with alacrity, tight-
ening his grip on my hand. With real earnestness he
continued, "I met the Lord just last summer when I
was stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and He's
real and precious to me."
I cannot fail to mention here, in order ,that the
reader may appreciate the significance of this experi-
ence, that during the next few weeks in combat and
38 Fight tire Good Fight
in bivouac when we were resting between combat
assignments I made a concerted effort to locate Chris-
tian men in that regiment. I wanted to set up a pro-
gram of Bible study and also get acquainted with the
men so we could get together for fellowship which
would strengthen them. Although I had large attend-
ance at services and interviewed a great many men
personally, I could not find one other young fell ow
who was a born-again Christian and had a real tes-
timony to that effect. The Lord had the only one in
roughly five thousand men standing there with his
hand outstretched asking to be my assistant. Would
you call that a coincidence? Surely that would be
an inadequate explanation. I believe with all my
heart that such things happen because we have a God
who delights to answer prayer. If we will be spe-
cific in our requests and believe Him when we pray,
He will be very specific when He answers and will
give us that which is for our good and for His own
glory. How sad it is that so many of us pray with-
out actually expecting God to do that which we ask
Him to do.
It would be quite impossible to tell you what the
life of Cliff Brewton meant to me and to many of the
men in that regimental combat team during the next
few weeks and months. There was never any ques-
tion in my mind about his continuing as my assist-
ant. What a splendid, attractive, consistent Christian
testimony he lived. I could in no way describe the ef-
fect it had on other men. I was continually hearing
some GI make a statement like this: "Whatever Cliff
Brewton has, it's the real thing! He practices what
he preaches." "The thing I like about Cliff," a young
soldier said to me one day, "is that he not only talks
about Jesus Christ, but he lives Jesus Christ every
day."
An unbelieving, profane Red Cross worker who
was assigned to our unit was visiting with me one
day, and he began to talk on the subject of our en-
listed men assistants. "Say, Chaplain," he said,
"whatever it is that you're dishing out over there at
your chapel services, if it is what makes Cliff Brewton
the kind of a fell ow he is, I need to come over and
get a good liberal dose of it myself. That kid gets
under my skin. He has the most attractive personal-
ity I believe I have ever seen in a soldier."
What a testimony for a young man who had been
a Christian only a year! This one young man proved
unmistakably that a real life of victory in Christ can
be lived even in the army. Of course, I could tell
you of many more fine Christian fellows that either
joined our unit in following weeks or were won to
the Lord in our meetings and in personal work. The
Lord began to bless in a wonderful way. My first
convert was a fine young lad by the name of Russell
who had first heard me preach the Gospel on the
troop transport coming to Japan. I could tell you of
Ernie Tyler, Bob Scott, Curt Loewen, Bill Macau-
lay, Frank Brittain, Axel Hershberger and several
scores of fine lads who really lived striking testi-
monies before their fellow soldiers in that airborne
unit, but I must return to the story of the approach-
ing Jump.
The day following my arrival I was to have re-
ceived some instructions from Chaplain Dunne, but
he found himself entirely too busy with other duties
around the regimental area, and the day passed with-
out a single word of instruction from him. Cliff did
40 F1.ght the Good Fight
all he could do to encourage me and gave me the only
real instruction that I had, carefully showing me only
the most important things such as the proper body
position for leaving the plane and the parachute land-
ing form. I was fully convinced that the Lord wanted
me to make this jump and I was doing all I could to
be well prepared for it. Some time had to be spent in
preparing and packing the gear which we were to
take along on the jump and getting all the rest, which
was most of what we had, loaded on trucks which
would come on the land tail, after the tanks had
broken through the enemy lines and a link-up had
been made.
At three o'clock on what happened to be Good Fri-
day morning, we started the short march over to the
air base where scores of huge planes were lined up
already heavily loaded with equipment and waiting to
be loaded with paratroopers. These planes had been
flying in from American bases in Japan all during the
day before and with great interest we had watched
them land. Cliff and I had been assigned to jump with
"I" Company, and it turned out that we were to be
in the fifth plane over the drop zone. As we marched
up to the side of the big C-119, or "Flying Boxcar"
as they are commonly called, in which we were to
ride, each of us was given a large bag containing two
parachutes. I pulled mine out of the case and stood
looking at them. Of course, it was night and there
was very little light, but all I could see was a mass
of straps and buckles. I am sure that if it had been up
to me to get into those parachutes I would be standing
over there yet, trying to decide just how it was done.
But my faithful friend, Cliff, came to my rescue
and soon I was getting into my chutes. The first or
lit I 1
main chute goes on the jumper's back. He puts his
arms through straps which make this chute go on
something like a jacket. Then straps on the bottom
of the chute are brought down between his legs, and
then fastened with the other straps on a quick-release
centered on his chest. They are pulled very tight, so
tight, in fact, that it is impossible after the first chute
is on, ever to stand fully upright again.
The second chute is in front on the chest and it is
fastened by a wide band which goes around the chest
and is pulled very tight, collapsing the lungs some-
what, I always thought! Then equipment is hung on
the straps below the second or reserve parachute.
Each man carries a bed roll wrapped in a waterproof
tarpaulin called a "poncho" to keep him dry in case
of rain, a small kit bag with toilet articles, food for
a day and a half, a few changes of sox, and other
necessary items. On his right side each soldier car-
ried his weapon, a carbine or an M-r rifle. I had only
a 45 pistol hanging on my belt. I shall speak of the
reason for this later. Most of the soldiers carried
other items of heavy equipment, perhaps parts of a
mortar, or a field radio. As I looked at the loads with
which many of them were weighted down, I won-
dered how they could ever e,xpect to get safely to the
ground. I discovered that many were trained to drop
their heavy load just a few feet above the ground in
order to protect themselves from injury upon landing.
Although my load consisted only of my bed-roll,
small kit bag and the very necessary items of personal
equipment, I felt heavily weighted down and most
uncomfortable. Because the straps of my parachutes
were drawn so tightly, I couldn't stand up straight.
I couldn't sit down, for there was nothing to sit
42 Fight the Good Fig/it
on but the ground, and I thought it might be most
difficult to get up if I ever got into a sitting position
on the ground. I couldn't lie down, for I had far
too much on my back and in front as well ! I walked
around as best I could until they opened the plane and
told us to get inside and sit down. Under other con-
ditions the bucket-type seats of that great plane might
have seemed uncomfortable. On that particular
morning I was grateful indeed to be seated in one of
them.
There were forty-four men in our Flying Boxcar,
not counting the crew of the plane. Twenty-two men
were sitting on each side with their backs against the
side of the plane. In between on what I learned was
called a monorail were huge cases of equipment which
were to be dropped through a trap door in the bottom
of the center of the plane as the parachutists went out
the two rear doors. Each plane was loaded to its
capacity. Some had jeeps, some had giant howitzers,
others had rations or other supplies. It was a most
spectacular sight to see a jeep or a howitzer dropping
from the sky, let down by a huge white parachute. I
recall being somewhat awed by that sight later that
morning. Our own particular plane was loaded with
huge canisters full of ammunition. It was comfort-
ing to think of that, in case we didn't succeed in get-
ting off the runway properly!
I was seated as the twenty-first man on the left side
of the plane. The only man behind me was a regular
army First Sergeant by the name of Streaby. He was
First Sergeant of "I" Company, the company that I
had been assigned to jump with and he was a veteran
jumper. In fact, as I got into the plane he was trying
to recall whether this was to be his ninety-ninth jump
.... _
Be Strong i1i the Lord 43
or whether it would be number one hundred! Some-
where he had lost track of one jump. It was no
problem for me to count my jumps.
"I think they must have put me next to you to
be sure that I get out of here all right, Sergeant
Streaby," I said to him.
"Oh, you'll g et out 0. K ., Chaplain," was his
reply, and I could see that he wasn' t particularly con-
cerned at having a novice in front of him.
After what seemed a very long wait the grey light
of dawn turned to the brighter light of the early
morning and the many giant planes began to warm
up their motors in preparation for the take-off. It
was a time of tension in every plane. Thoughts in-
stinctively went to loved ones across the sea. I am
sure there was a considerable amount of praying go-
ing on in those planes, although little of it was the
enlightened prayer of true faith.
Ours was among the very first of the planes to take
off that morning. I shall never forget the loud sigh
of relief that came from Sergeant Streaby as soon as
we were airborne. I turned to him with a questioning
look.
" I dread the take-off more than the jump, Chap-
lain," he said.
"That seems strange to me, Sergeant," I said.
"Why?"
"Once I'm out that door I have a lot to say about
what happens, and I can control my chute and pick
my landing spot, but if those motors fail to lift this
tremendously heavy load off the ground, there is
nothing that I can do about it."
"Perhaps you have something there," I said, "but
the way I feel about it this morning, there is little
I could do in either situation."

We were now high in the air and gaining altitude
steadily. I began to look around me in the plane.
The men were not talking and laughing as GI's usu-
ally do when they are in a crowd. Each one was sit-
ting quietly in his seat, gazing into space, seeing only
what his mind pictured for him. I began to observe
closely the expressions on their faces. I noticed that
man after man wore an expression of absolute agony.
Great drops of perspiration stood out on their brows.
It was not because the temperature was warm either,
for it was a chilly winter day and we were high in
the air. I began to think. "These men," I said to my-
self, "know what is ahead of them." Everyone of
them had made many jumps before, and each one
except myself had been in a combat jump in North
Korea just a few weeks before. I had heard a few
tales the previous day of terrible things that had hap-
pened on that particular jump and in the hours that
followed it.
"If the fellows that know what to expect look
like that, how should I look?" I thought.
It was just then that a feeling of sheer panic seized
me. I began to shake and tremble with fear. I confess
I felt utterly dismayed ; it seemed that I just couldn't
go ahead with that jump into space. But I did the
only thing that a Christian needs to do and should do
in a situation like that. I dropped my head over my
reserve parachute and began to pray.
"Dear Lord," I cried, "the only reason in the world
that I am up here in this plane this morning riding
along to this jump is because Thou didst make it very
clear to me day before yesterday that Thou didst want
me here. But I came along to represent Thee to these
men. I'll never be any recommendation for Thee, if
they see that I'm shaking with fear. But I can't help
myself. Thou wilt have to do something for me.
Dear Lord, please give me a testimony with these
men and quiet my fears."
Suddenly again, as I prayed, the Lord stopped me
and for the second time that week He spoke to me in
words unmistakable and clear. This time it was just
one comforting statement from the most familiar of
Psalms: "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me!"
What a promise! Could anything be better?
The Lord was telling me that He was with me,
and was going to be with me. As I thought about
what He had said, I realized that if my Saviour were
sitting physically on my right where Cliff sat or upon
my left where Sergeant Streaby was sitting and He
whispered in my ear that He was going to jump out
of that plane wi th me I would have no fear whatso-
ever. Yet that was just exactly what He was telling
me. His personal, abiding Presence was that real.
I remembered also that He had promised that the
angels would be there to bear me up in their hands.
The Lord and the angels! That was wonderful com-
pany. Certainly I needed no one else. As the full
realization of the Lord's promise swept over me, such
peace flooded my soul as I have never experienced
under any other circumstances. I doubt if I shall
ever have quite such an experience again. My head
was bowed in prayer over my front parachute. As
the sweet peace of God took possession of me I fell
sound asleep! We had two hours to fly to the drop
zone. The next thing I knew, Cliff was poking
me in the ribs.
"Chaplain Rayburn, you'd better get awake now,"
he said, " for it is about time for us to be getting out
of here."
I had slept almost the entire two hours!
"You must have been terribly tired out to have
slept like that," the reader will think.
My answer is simply that physical weariness had
nothing to do with my sleeping that morning. It is
unthinkable to me that I should go to sleep in a plane
out of which I was goi ng to have to jump in a few
minutes. But the Lord had answered my prayer.
For days, yes, many days a fter that, fellows in the
regiment would approach me and say something like
this, "Chaplain, we heard from some of the men in
your plane that you were sound asleep all the way to
the drop zone at Munsan. Wasn't that your first
jump ? How in the world could you sleep all the
way?"
What an opportunity fo r testimony! I had a
chance to tell them about a Saviour whose presence
is so real, and whose promises a re so sure that He
can give perfect peace in the worst kind of circum-
stances. I can think of nothing much worse than the
prospect of having to jump out o f a plane for the
first time right into the middle o f a battlefield. I
doubt if the reader can either. The jumpers to whom
I witnessed had had personal experience enough to
know that it was not natural to be perfectly at peace
under such circumstances. They listened attentively
to what I told them about the Saviour. I had asked
the Lord for a testimony with the men, and He
graciously gave it to me. Oh, the power of God!
How important it is that we stand in His strength
and not in our own.
I was hardly awake when the r ed light came on in
Be Strong in tlte Lord 47
the end of the plane, indicating that we had just four
minutes remaining before we were to jump. The
doors in the bottom of the plane through which the
equipment was to fall opened wide just beneath me.
I could look straight down on the Korean landscape
below. The plane had lost altitude and the pilot was
slowing it down as much as possible. The jump-
master in the tail end of the plane shouted his order :
"Stand up and hook up!" This command meant' that
we were to get to our feet, turn and face the rear
doors, take the static lines from the parachutes on
our backs and hook them to the cable which ran the
length of the plane just above our left shoulders. As
we moved to the door we would slide the hook along
with our hands. Then as we let go and leaped through
the door and out o f the plane this cord would pull
each man's first parachute from its pack. When one
hundred pounds o f pressure was e.,x erted on it the
string tied to the apex o f the chute would break,
setting the trooper free in the air.
When all were hooked up, the next order was
shouted. "Sound off for the equipment check!"
Sergeant Streaby behind me slapped my thigh and
shouted, " Number one, O .K ."
Each man was to check the equipment of the man
in front of him to see that all parts of his equ ipment
were properly adjusted and it was safe for him to
jump. Poor Cliff, ahead of me, could have been
headed for disaster for all I knew.' I didn't know how
his equipment was supposed to look. But he looked
all right to me. I slapped him on the thigh.
"Number two, O.K."
"Number three, 0.1(."
And so it went on down the line and in a few sec-
48 Figlzt the Good Fight
onds the last man had "sounded off." A few tense
seconds followed.
"Are you going?" cried the jumpmaster.
"Y e-a-h !" roared everyone in the plane. Each man
shouted mostly to encourage himself.
The red light changed to green and I saw the jump-
master leap from the door. I had been instructed in
the proper way to shuffle to the rear door so as not
to get my feet tangled with anyone else, but I was ill
prepared for the speed with which that huge plane was
emptied. I found myself whisked to the rear. I had
a sensation of racing to try to keep up with Cliff
who was just ahead of me. There was no pause at
the door. I was out!
The ne..x t sensation I had was that of a violent
jerk, called by the paratroopers the "opening shock,"
and indeed it was a shock. It is cause{ of course, by
the sudden opening of the parachute. A trooper is
traveling between eighty and one hundred miles an
hour when he jumps, perhaps even faster at times.
As his body leaves the door the propeller blast whips
the chute open and he stops. It is a most sudden stop.
One feels for a moment as though every bone in his
body has been broken. I had been told to check my
canopy immediately to see that there were no split
panels and no other apparent difficulties, but the open-
ing shock had pulled by helmet far down over my
eyes and I simply couldn't raise my h ead far enough
to see the canopy of my parachute from under that
helmet. ·
What a glorious sensation one experiences in re-
alizing that his parachute is open! One major peril
is over. He has the exhilarating feeling of being sus-
pended in mid-air, of floating like a feather, but this
Be Stro1ig in the Lord 49
lasts for only a few brief seconds, for it becomes
quickly apparent that he is nearing the ground. It is
actually only twenty-five seconds from the time one
leaves the plane until he is on the ground, so he
doesn't have time to write his last will and testament
on the way down! I recalled Cliff's instructions to
prepare for the landing at once. I was to put my feet
together and bend my knees just slightly, so that I
would not land stiff-legged and perhaps break some
leg bones. This I did without delay. Looking below
me I could see what looked like a river running
through the drop zone; I felt sure I was going into
the water. I wondered if it could be very deep. No
one had given me any instructions about what to do
if I landed in the water!
But the Lord was good to me. A little breeze car-
ried me to the bank of what was only a small creek,
and I landed on the soft slope of this bank. I could
not have found a more ideal place. I had been told
to take a complete fall in a kind o f somersault in
order to take up the full shock of the landing, but I
came in so easily that I didn't n eed to make a somer-
sault at all. I just went down on my knees and
stopped there. I am sure, however, that the Lord's
hand was even in the way I fell, for in that position
I was reminded that the very first thing I should do
was to lift my eyes to heaven and say, "Thank Thee,
Lord. Thou hast kept Thy promise. I haven't so
much as dashed my foot against a stone. Accept my
humble thanks, and help me now to accomplish what
Thou hast brought me here to do."
What happened in the ne.x1: few moments is re-
corded in a later chapter. Suffice it to say here that
the next few days were days of fierce fighting. With
comparatively little difficulty we secured the drop zone

which was just east of the village of Munsan, later
made world famous as the location of the United
Nations Truce Delegation carrying on its conferences
in the nearby meeting place of Panmunjom, but then
only an obscure Korean town among many similar
ones. The tanks broke through and established the
vital ground link with us late in the evening of that
same Good Friday on which we jumped. I spent most
of my time that day in the battalion aid stations and
regimental collecting area giving what comfort and
help I could to the wounded. There were happily not
too many the first day.
When we were ordered to start east the next eve-
ning about nightfall through a narrow valley on
what was hardly more than a trail, the story changed
abruptly. We were starting out to cut off a large
segment of enemy soldiers and to make a connection
with the Third Division which was fighting its way
northward to the east of us a number of miles. All
through that long weary night the men of our three
battalions marched over very rough terrain. It was
soon discovered that what we were calling a road had
never been built with any idea of large army vehicles
traveling it. Many detours and bypasses had to be
made in order even to get through. All the bridges
were too small for us to use, so fords had to be im-
provised hastily in the darkness. This was not always
easy in a narrow valley. Our tanks finally had to give
up and go back. There was simply no way they could
get through some of the narrow defiles along that
route. Perhaps their leaving us shortly before dawn
was one reason why we began to run into stiff resis-
tance as the light of Easter Sunday began to break
upon us. There had been intermittent gun fire but no
real opposition throughout the night. However, as
our advance battalion crossed a ridge and began to
work its way through a wide valley, the enemy opened
up with heavy fire, mortars, machine guns and small
arms. They had us surrounded on three sides and
consequently had excellent observation of all of our
movements. We were in for heavy fighting; we could
see there were serious difficulties ahead for us.
About two thousand yards short of our ultimate
objective for that day, we were forced to stop in a
little burned-out village where the second and third
battalions set up their aid stations together. All dur-
ing the remaining hours of that Easter day the medics
kept bringing in the wounded and dying. Because of
continual rain and a very low ceiling we had no air
support at all, and the helicopters that had evacuated
the most seriously wounded from the drop zone near
Munsan couldn't get in to pick up any of our wounded
men.
A chaplain's position on the battlefield is not mov-
ing in the front line of attack where he could help and
minister to only a few at best, but in the aid stations
where those who need him most are brought as
quickly as possible after they are wounded. As I
stood over those wounded and sometimes dying men
in the aid stations that day, how thankful to God I
was that He had brought me to that field of battle,
even though He had used such an unexpected and un-
usual method of bringing me there, for I knew that
I had the message that those men needed worse than
anything in the world. I thanked God again and again
throughout that day that I could give those men such
a simple yet wonderful message and tell them of a
Saviour who had come into this world and died in
order that the death they were facing there on that
battlefield would not be death, but rather would be
the entrance into more abundant life. When a man's
life blood i's running out on a battlefield, he is only
interested in something which is going to be good
after this life is over.
The Associated Press, in a news release which was
run in many newspapers in the States, told of my
jumping for the first time in combat: "Chaplain Ray-
burn jumped with his regiment in order to hold
Easter services for the troops behind the enemy
lines." There were no Easter services in our outfit
that day, but I hope and believe that someday when
I reach the glory land I shall meet some men who
entered into that place ofblessed rest from the muddy
battlefield that Easter Sunday. If men found the
reality of the living Christ in saving faith, certainly
that is as wonderful as anything that could · happen
in any beautiful Easter service under the most auspi-
cious of circumstances.
I have not told you of this experience that you
might find it interesting and full of suspense, but in
order that you might see as I saw clearly those days
how absolutely vital it is for every Christian to avail
himself of God's strength, to take God's Word, to
stand upon it and to be obedient unto it. I would
never have been in the places where I was greatly
needed during those days had I not believed with all
my heart that what the Lord wanted was far more
important than any desire I had, that God's Word
was true and that I could trust His promises implic-
itly. I have already confessed to you that my own
heart was full of fears. I do not consider myself a
brave man. Those friends of mine who know me
best were the most amazed to hear that I had become
a paratrooper. They knew that I am not made of the
stuff commonly associated with reckless paratroopers.
But God had ordained that I should be among those
men for a witness. He gave me His own Word to
make known His will; all I did was to believe that
·word. It was His strength in which I was strong,
not my own. The faith He gave me was indeed the
shield from all the fears and alarms, all the perils and
evils of those dreadful hours.
Our God loves to be trusted! Have you put Him
to the test in your own life? Do you know what it
means to stand in His strength alone? Are you will-
ing to face honestly the question of God's will about
any matter in your life and then abide strictly in
Him? His strength is sufficient. Without it a Chris-
tian soldier is sure to fail in the hard-fought battle
against all the dreadful spiritual adversaries which
confront us in the world today. But with God's
strength he is fully prepared to meet the adversary
and defeat him. He is prepared for the temptations
and trials of the evil one, whether they arise within
his own soul, or whether they come down upon him
from without. The world does not need more Chris-
tians nearly as much as it needs stronger ones.
CHAPTER THREE
The Soldier's Weapons
"For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal ... " (II Corinthians IO :4). "Pitt
on the whole armour of God . . ." (Ephe-
sians 6 : I I ) .
I shall never forget the feeling of absolute help-
lessness which overtook me on the drop zone near
Munsan on the Good Friday morning that I made my
first parachute jump. Already I have described that
jump, and have told you of the remarkable way in
which the Lord protected me and brought me safely
to a landing on the bank of a little creek. The First
Sergeant who jumped with me went right into the
water behind me. I shouted out to him that it simply
didn't pay to be experienced in parachuting I Before
either of us could get out of his parachute, however,
we began to hear bullets whizzing past our heads.
We had been in the fifth plane over the drop zone
that morning so were among the very first few men
to land on the ground.
A few enemy soldiers had been surprised and some-
what terrorized by our suddenly pouring out of the
skies upon them and had taken refuge under a bridge
across the creek into which the Sergeant had fallen
and on the banks of which I had landed. By the time
we were on the ground they were in sufficient control
of themselves to open fire on us from beneath the
bridge where they had scrambled for some sort of
shelter. They were too frightened to be very accu-
rate as they opened fire, but when the first bullets
went whistling past my head I fell flat on the ground
and the Sergeant, considering that another wetting
was not to be avoided at such a time as this, dropped
himself on his stomach in the shallow water. I
grabbed quickly, and almost instinctively, for the 45
calibre pistol which was hanging on my belt on my
right side. It was when I took it from its holster and
had it firmly grasped in my right hand that a sicken-
ing realization overwhelmed me. I held in my hand
a weapon that I knew hardly anything about! It was
almost utterly useless to me, for I had had no train-
ing nor practice in the handling of it at all.
Chaplains in the U. S. Army do not carry weapons
in combat. During World War II in Europe we were
strictly forbidden to have them on our persons. This
had never presented any problem to me, for I had
never had any desire to carry one. I felt that I was
in the army to minister to the spiritual needs of
American soldiers, not to participate in the fighting
as such. When I arrived in the Far East, however,
at one of the supply points through which we had
passed I was issued a pistol.
"I'm a chaplain," I said to the officer who was
issuing the equipment, "and we don't wear firearms
of any kind. I don't need this."
"Chaplain," he replied, "these Communists don't
know anything about the Geneva Convention, and
even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference to
them. We've had enough chaplains killed and taken
prisoner to know that they are not abiding by the
rules of warfare. That little cross shining on your
helmet makes a very nice bright object at which to
aim from a little distance. You'd better take this
The Soldier's Weapons 57
weapon as a matter of self defense."
I had somewhat reluctantly taken the pistol, and
although I had removed it from its holster, examined
it carefully, and loaded it with a clip of cartridges
before the take-off for the drop zone, I had never
fired it. The fact of the matter is I had never fired
a pistol of any kind. I had, of course, had a little
target practice with a rifle and had even learned quite
a bit about the bazooka, because of a special interest
in that rather remarkable weapon, but I had never
been particularly interested in pistol shooting.
One who knows anything about a 45 pistol knows
that it is a very inaccurate weapon, except in the
hands of an expert. It is most difficult to hit what one
is shooting at with such a weapon unless he is at very
close range, or has had a great deal of practice and
developed real skill. I had had neither. In the situ-
ation in which I found myself that morning I am sure
that with that pistol I would have had difficulty in
hitting a barn had it been only fifty feet from me! As
I looked at the pistol there in my hands I realized that
it would do me no good at that time. vVhat a dread-
ful thing it is to be on a battlefield in a struggle with
an enemy who is trying to kill you and to have a
weapon you do not know how to use effectively l
I thank God that my friend, Sergeant Streaby, had
an M-1 rifle with him that he did know how to use.
He made short work of the soldiers who were shoot-
ing at us, and soon he had left me and was leading
his company, which he had assembled about him, in
an attack on a strategic hill at the northeastern corner
of the drop zone. I didn't see him again for several
days.
The Lord wrote that experience indelibly upon my
'
58 Fight tJie Good Fight
memory. I thought of it many times in the following
days. I acquainted myself with my pistol at the first
opportunity, but I also pondered the spiritual lesson
which the Holy Spirit had made very real to me.
Alas, there are entirely too many Christians today
who are in the mortal struggle that is going on be-
tween Satan with his forces and our Lord Jesus
Christ with His forces who have been reduced to
ineffectiveness because they do not know the weapons
of their warfare, and as a result they are depending
upon others to impart spiritual strength to them and
to ward off the attacks of the enemy as well. Or per-
haps if they are not consciously depending upon
others to fight for them, they are making an effort to
fight the devil with the wrong weapons.
The Holy Spirit has told us, through the pen of
the Apostle Paul, that "the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal" (II Corinthians 10 A), yet there seem
to be many who are trying to carry on their warfare
against Satanic power with fleshly weapons. How
easy it is to put emphasis upon that which is, when
analyzed, purely of the flesh. Today one sees much
of this, even among those who have a clear under-
standing of the Gospel and preach it in its simplicity.
There is an emphasis upon that which appeals only
to the flesh in many of the attempts made to secure
big crowds, in the energy expended to extol the merits
of a particular speaker, and in the effort made to pre-
sent a record of accomplishments more unusual than
that of anyone else.
The devil laughs at our fleshly efforts. He doesn't
care how we publicize ourselves; he doesn't quaver
when he hears our blare of trumpets and the loud
proclamations of our attainments. He trembles only
The Soldier's Weapons 59
when he sees devout Christians take up their spiritual
weapons and engage him in combat because they be-
lieve God's Word is true and that all of His promises
are to be taken at face value and His commandments
are to be obeyed.
How we need to remember constantly that "we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin-
cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places" (Ephesians 6 :12). It is for this rea-
son that we have been warned to "put on the whole
armour of God," for our own armour, our own re-
sources against the powerful prince of this world,
would avail nothing.
Have you ever stopped to consider what the Chris-
tian warrior's armour is and whether or not you are
wearing it-the whole armour? Have you pondered
each piece and searched your own heart and soul as
to whether that piece was firmly fixed in your life
and used daily in overcoming the world, the flesh,
and the devil? Have you cast aside confidence in the
flesh and realized that you would get nowhere by
trying within yourself to live in victory over the
sins of this life, or are you struggling on in a vain
attempt to "do the best you can" against impossible
odds?
There is victory for you, my friend, no matter how
bitter may have been the def eats of the past. The
victory begins with the realization that the flesh of
man is just as undependable after he becomes a Chris-
tian as it was before he was saved. No man can count
on his flesh for anything except a longing after sin.
Then in a proper and faithful use of the spiritual
weapons that God has supplied through His Son Jesus
e ,
..
60 F ig/it the Good Fig/it
Christ and through the personal ministry of the Holy
Spirit, the victory is realized. These weapons are
yours for the taking. They will do you no good un-
less they are used.
The pistol in my hand on the drop zone at Munsan
was of no value to me. No more will the weapons of
your spiritual warfare be of value to you unless, by
His grace, you learn what they are, take them, use
them, become proficient in the use of them and never
allow yourself to be found without them.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Belt of Truth

"Stand therefore, having yoitr loins girt
a.bout with truth ... and take ... the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God"
(Ephesians 6 :r4, r7).
Little did I realize, before I became a soldier my-
self, just what an important item of equipment is a
soldier's belt. I do not mean, of course, the belt with
which he keeps the trousers of his uniform suspended
around his waist, but rather the web belt that he
wears on the outside of his uniform, and from which
most of his equipment is hung. A combat soldier
actually carries suspended from that belt almost
everything that is necessary for the proper discharge
of his function as a soldier.
On one hip there is the canteen and cup which are
so essential. The water in the canteen will keep him
going when he would have to stop because of thirst
and exhaustion without it. It will moisten the lips I
of a badly injured comrade whom he seeks to help
back to a place of safety where he can have medical
aid. The cup which fits around the canteen has a
hundred uses. I have seen men drinking out of it,
I
cooking in it, using it as a dishpan for washing other
vessels or as a wash tub for the laundering of sox
or underclothing. I have seen men also try to make
it serve as their own bathtub as they tried to manage
ablutions under great difficulties.
On the other hip the infantry man carries his first
62 Fig/it the Good Fight
aid packet. In this small box are the most essential
items of first aid which have on many occasions saved
the lives of men on the battlefields of the world. Very
often have I seen soldiers carried into the aid stations,
their wounds already dressed by a faithful compan-
ion, with the use of his first aid packet. Rarely does
one arrive without this preliminary first aid treat-
ment.
Also on the right hip all of the airborne officers
and many of the enlisted men, especially the "non-
coms," carried 45 pistols suspended from their belts.
Across the front of the same belts there would be
hanging hand grenades and the clips of cartridges
for pistol and rifle. With all this equipment sus-
pended from his belt the soldier can fight on; without
it he becomes ineffective and must quickly get back
to a supply point where he can secure these essentials
for combat.
I am sure that the Lord had in mind this essential
part of the warrior's equipment when he wrote,
"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with
truth." I do not know the exact uses of the girdle
in ancient warfare, but I feel sure they must have
been similar to those which the soldier's belt has
today. The very first item of equipment which is
mentioned in the listing o f the various parts of the
Christian warrior's armour by the Apostle Paul in
Ephesians 6 is the girdle or belt of truth.
It does not take a highly trained student of the
Word to know that the r eference here is to the Word
of God, which is indeed the belt of truth for the
believer. "Thy Word is truth," we read, and the
One who is Himself Truth Incarnate and who said
of Himself, "I am the Truth," is revealed to us by
The Belt of Truth 63
the Spirit of God in the written 'vVord. This Word
then is one of our most important weapons in bring-
ing the enemy into defeat. Let us see just how this
is accomplished.
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians
warning them of the necessity of warring after the
spirit and not after the flesh, he reminded them that
their weapons were "not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds." He then
proceeded to show what form at least some of these
strongholds would take. He said, "casting down
imaginations," or as the better translation of the
Revised Version has it, "overthrowing reasonings,"
and we would add here "of the flesh," for this is
certainly what the Apostle was talking about, "and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ."
Here we see clearly that fleshly reasoning begets
fleshly pride. The result of giving in to fleshly rea-
soning is a spirit of disobedience to the revealed will
of God. Are you conscious, believing friend, even
as you read this, of the necessity of dealing with
fleshly reasonings in your own Ii fe? Are you aware
of the fact that spiritual warfare is necessary in order
to cast these reasonings down? Have you stopped to
consider the fact that your flesh is no more dependable
since you became a Christian than it was before you
received Christ as your Saviour? How little recog-
nition there is on the part of Christians today of the
fact that the devil will seek to erect strongholds of
fleshly reasoning within them, and these must be dealt
with sharply and unremittingly, lest the enemy gain
the advantage.
'

It is not at all difficult for us to recognize the faulty
reasoning of the flesh in an unsaved man. We deal
with an unbeliever about his soul and when we press
upon him the necessity of salvation, his reply often
runs something like thi~, "vVell, now, I'll tell you
what I think. I believe that if a 1nan does the best
he can he will be all right." We instantly recognize
this for wh;i.t it is, the faulty, sinful reasoning of the
flesh, and we remember that God has said, "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness unto him: neith~r can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned"
(I Corinthians 2 :14), and we expect nothing better
from the unbeliever. We know that he cannot under-
stand the infinite righteousness of a God who cannot
and will not look upon sin. We realize that fleshly
reasoning will never lead hin1 to a con1prehension of
the necessity of a just God pouring out wrath upon
sin and the constraining love of a gracious and n1erci-
ful God causing Him to be willing to bear that wrath
Himself in the person of I{is only begotten Son. We
know that we must pray that the I--Ioly Spirit will
make clear to him, as He alone can do, the glorious
message of the Gospel and his own need of a personal
Saviour.
Yet, many who readily discern the mind of the
flesh in the life of an unsaved man do not realize that
that same flesh will produce the same faulty reason-
ing in their own selves even after they are saved if
they allow themselves to walk according to the flesh
and to war after the flesh. Somehow the adversary
convinces many believers that now, because they
are Christians, they can n1ake up their own minds
about that which is right and good. They can safely
Tlte Belt of Truth 65
follow the leadings and promptings of their own
flesh. But this is the path of certain def eat.
How often we see Christians starting to work for
the Lord in the enthusiasm of fleshly effort. When
that effort runs into difficulties, a cry is made to Him,
"Lord, come and help us!" Yet, our Saviour will
not bless the efforts of our flesh. He would say to
us, "Why have you started this work? Why have
you undertaken this effort? My Spirit did not direct
you to do this; you undertook it by and of yourself."
It is not in our works of service and devotion alone,
however, that we follow the reasonings of the flesh,
but also in our attempt to find victory in our Chris-
tian lives. "Having begun in the Spirit," so many,
many Christians are striving to be "made perfect by
the flesh" ( Galatians 3 :3). \,Vhile they thus war
after the flesh, the devil builds strong points of resist-
ance in their lives. Especially does he succeed in
building a sense of pride in personal accomplishment.
This pride is indeed a "high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God."
The only safeguard against the efforts of Satan
in this regard is a continual warfare in the Spirit by
means of an effective use of the weapons which God
has placed at our disposal. I particularly like the
Phillips translation of the last pa rt of II Corinthians
10:5. "We even fight to capture every thought until
it acknowledges the authority of Jesus Christ." As
you read these words, are you conscious of that fight
in your own life, the fight for the capturing of each
of your thoughts and subjecting it to the absolute
authority of your living Saviour? Have you deter-
mined, by God's grace, to subject even your thought
processes to the refining light of God's judgment,
refusing to even think a thought until it is subjected
to the scrutiny of the mind of the Master? "Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"
(Philippians 2 :5) . This involves real warfare against
the strongholds of fleshly reasoning.
What then is the particular weapon for this aspect
of the struggle? The only way in which any man
can effectively fight fleshly reasonings is with the
truth, the Word of God. The heart and the mind
which is continually saturated with the Word of God
is the only one which is properly equipped for spiritual
warfare. The mind and the heart so filled with God's
Word will be able r eadily to subject each thought to
the careful scrutiny of spiritual discernment. There
will be an unwillingness to countenance aught that
is in any way contrary to the Word. Not alone the
" letter" of the Word, but the spirit of the Word will
dominate and permeate the thoughts of such a mind.
But, alas, the willful ignorance of the Word of God
that one finds in the world today. Multitudes of
Christians know little or nothing about the Word,
yet it is first on the list of weapons which they must
bear and use continually in spiritual conflict with the
forces of darkness.
You have never heard, nor have I, a woman who
giggled superficially over her lack of knowledge of
mathematics, saying, "You know, I just don't know
anything about mathematics. I know that I should,
but I just don't. I just never seemed to have time to
learn. When I go to the grocery store to buy a few
things I know that I ~ould be cheated, for I don't
even know how to add up my grocery bill!" Such a
statement as that would shock us indeed. Yet I have
had mature women who have been church members
The Belt of Truth 67
for many years come to me and say, " You know,
Pastor, I just don't know much about the Bible. I
know that I should, but I seem never to have had time
to learn. I 'm ashamed of myself, but whenever I'm
asked a question about the Bible, I always have to
come to my pastor to find out the answer." Is it any
wonder that there is so little effectiveness in warding
off the onslaughts of the Prince of this World when
there is such ignorance, such willful ignorance of the
Word of God, a primary weapon in the fight of faith?
Such ignorance is bound to result in defeated, barren
lives.
We have spoken thus far of the Word of God as
the belt of truth which surrounds the believer. This
is the defensive aspect of the weapon which is the
Bible. It is this use of the Word which protects the
believer from the reasonings of the flesh and from
the efforts of Satan against his mind and heart. But
there is also an offensive use of the Word of God,
and this should be mentioned here also, for it is listed
in the armour of the Christian warrior. Paul calls it
the Sword of the Spirit.
No war was ever won by a side which fought de-
fensively only. There were times in the early stages
of the Korean conflict when our forces were almost
pushed into the sea. They had to fight desperately
just to def end themselves from the mighty onslaughts
of the waves of Chinese Communists. If that de-
fensive stage had not ended successfully for our
troops the war would have been over long ago. But
when their def ens es around the Pusan perimeter held,
it made possible an advance into enemy territory
again. It was when our great army began rolling on
its offensive that real victory began to be within its
grasp. So, every Christian warrior must realize that
it is not enough that he be protected from the of-
fensive of the world, the flesh and the devil, but he
must actually go on the offensive himself with the
great weapon which is the Sword of the Spirit, the
Word of God. There is enemy territory to be taken
in this world today. Many places yet remain where
the prince of this world is still in complete control.
There has never been a witness to the saving power
of the blood of Christ; no word of the Bible has ever
been translated into the language of the people. The
sharp sword of the Word of God which is quick and
powerful, yes, and sharper than any two-edged sword
has never been raised in battle against the forces of
darkness.
Even in this great land of ours, where the Gospel
has been preached and known from the beginning of
the nation, there are still multitudes who sit in dark-
ness under the power of the devil. Although they
could turn on their radios any day of the week and
hear a clear and accurate message proclaiming the
way of life and salvation, they prefer to remain in
sin and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Christians must assault the minds of the unsaved,
where Satan reigns, with the clear, pure Word of God.
Surely the situation at home and abroad should
challenge Christian young people in these days as
nothing else does.
L
CHAPTER FIVE
The Shield of Faith

"Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewi-th ye shall be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked" ( Ephesians 6 :
16).
Just three weeks to the day from my first jump
in Korea I was told that I was to make a second jump,
and this time it was to be at night! I had had no time
to take any of the promised jump training, for we
had been in the thick of the fighting, and when we
had been pulled out of the lines for a brief rest our
first responsibility had been to get our equipment in
shape so that we would be ready when committed in
another combat assignment. Consequently, I knew
nothing more about parachuting than I did when I
went out the door of the plane on the first jump, ex-
cept that I had parachuted safely once, and I felt that
~ had some idea at least of what would happen on a
Jump.
I certainly had no desire to make my second jump
at night. As a matter of fact I could honestly say
that I had no real desire to make a second jump at
all! By virtue of my having jumped the first time
in combat I had qualified as a parachutist and had
received my wings from General Bowen, commanding
general of the Combat Team, so, as far as the army
was concerned, I had the same qualification as the
men who had taken the strenuous course at the para-
chutist's school in Ft. Benning, Georgia. I would
have been willing to have settled for having this qual-
ification. But if I was going to do more jumping, I
certainly hoped it could be in the daylight. I could
hardly imagine plunging out of a plane in the dark-
ness.
Again, however, realizing that the only thing which
really mattered was the Lord' s will, I took my prob-
lem to Him in prayer. Falling on my knees in my
tent, I began to lay my anxiety before Him. I knew
that I could get out of jumping this time if I actually
took advantage of one or two opportunities that pre-
sented themselves. Parachutists must jump once
every three months to maintain their jump status, but
it had not been a month since my first jump, so I felt
sure that I could have made arrangements not to have
jumped at this time. A chaplain's wishes are nor-
mally respected by his commanding officer, and I felt
confident that since the jump to be made was not a
combat operation but a training mission, I could get
removed from the manifest if I could give a plausible
reason for my removal to the S-3 , the training officer
in charge of the whole operation. But as I prayed
to the Lord, actually hoping, I am sure, that He would
indicate in some way that it was n ot His will for
me to make this jump, He again stopped me in the
midst of my prayer and began to speak to me, slowly,
clearly as He had before, from a passage of scrip-
ture in which I had had no meditation for weeks, as
far as I could remember. This is what I heard Him
say, as I knelt before Him in my tent:
" Th'e darkness hideth not from thee, b'I{/ tlte
night shineth as the dcr,y: the darkness and the
light are both alike to thee."
What a direct answer ! There certainly could be
The Shield of Faith 71
no doubt in my mind that God was directing me to
make that jump. It was His Word. The reader will
recognize it as the 12th verse of Psalm 139. I had
but to believe it. God was r eaffirming His promises
to me. He was telling me that the safety and well-
being which He had promised me before were just
as much to be counted on for this occasion. He had
led me to my airborne assignment, and He would take
care of me at all times. Although the first mission
was in the daylight and this was to be at night, it
mattered not at all for darkness and light were both
alike to Him. If I really believed His Words I knew
that I would have no concern for my well-being and
safety. I had heard a good many strange tales about
night jumping. I have decided that an airborne unit
is a good place to hear almost any kind o f hair-raising
story! I felt sure that my night jump would be as
much without incident, as far as the jump itself was
concerned, as the first one had been.
I was not, however, entirely right in this assump-
tion. The Lord had something else He wanted to
show me for His own glory. I was to learn that in
keeping His promises God does not always follow
the pattern we e.,xpect. Just after dark we loaded
into the planes. This time I was to jump from a
C-46. Most of the men who were jumping in my
plane had made night jumps before. Several of them
had made many. As we waited for take-off time, they
entertained one another with their tales of night
jumps and, of course, I listened with avid interest.
It was well-known to all of those men that I was not
an experienced jumper. Nevertheless, it always
seemed that the men were especially thankful to have
me alon~ with them in the plane. A chaplain is ~
very welcome companion on such a hazardous mis-
sion. No doubt many regarded his presence as a sort
of charm or fetish. It was, however, gratifying to
have the men happy for my presence. At other times
in my army experience I have noticed restraint and
even a slight tinge of resentment over a chaplain's
presence when I have walked into a group of soldiers.
They have acted as though they felt my presence
might be a damper upon their fun. I was thankful to
feel very, very welcome in that plane that night.
The flight to the drop zone was not a long one this
time. We were not more than a half hour in the air
before we heard the slowing down of the motors of
the plane which indicated that we were nearing the
drop zone. The red light flashed on; at the order
from the jumpmaster we stood up and hooked up.
I was only the fourth man from the door this time, so
almost as soon as the red light changed to green I cast
myself through the door and out into the inky dark-
ness. I remember thinking that it didn't actually
seem so frightening at night, for one could not see
the ground below him and had no sense of the great
distance he had to fall. Although I had no time to
stand and make comparisons, in thinking of it since
I have decided that it was actually easier to plunge
out of the door of the plane in the dark than it was in
the daylight.
My first sensation after leaving the plane was, of
course, the "opening shock." I was grateful each
time I jumped for that terrific jerk, even though it
was anything but a pleasant experience at the mo-
ment, for it meant that my chute was open. Bµt
there was a surprise awaiting me.
As I had gone out the door on the right side of the
•
The S/iielcl of Fai th 73
plane, a young soldier had jumped from the left side.

He was fourth in line on his side of the plane, the
same place I occupied on m y side. Because I was
considerably heavier than he, I evidently fell faster,
and when our parachutes opened, I was quite a dis-
tance below him. One swings like a pendulum in a
parachute when it first opens and when this lad began
to swing he came right into the lines of my parachute
up very near to the canopy and to his di smay got him-
self so tangled up in the taut cords that he could not
get disengaged.
I could feel that someone had collided with my
parachute, but try as I would I could not see him.
He was directly behind m e overhead, and my steel
helmet was fastened so tight on my head tha t I could
not get it back far enough to see about one quarter of
my parachute canopy . Against the night sky I could
have seen him had he been at any other side of my
parachute. Being unable to see him, however, I could
only guess what was happening. I thought to my-
self, "I'm sure there is something that I should do
to help that fellow up there, but I haven' t the slig htest
idea what it is." S ome t ime later I fo und out from
the young soldier himself just w hat had taken place.
As he struggled to free himself from the cords of
my parachute, something happened which almost in-
variably happens when two parachutes come close
together, one above the other. The bottom parachute,
which was mine, robbed the top pa rachute of its air.
It collapsed and hung uselessly around his f eet. He
could not pull his reserve parachute, for it would have
undoubtedly tangled in the same cords in which he
seemed fastened. If it had opened properly it would
have come open under the canopy of my parachute
74 Fight the Good F£ght
and further difficulties would most surely have been
encountered. The young soldier, as it later de-
veloped, was making only his fourth jump. He real-
ized, however, that it would be foolhardy to pull the
rip cord on his reserve parachute and that the best
thing for him to do was to hang on tightly to the
cords of my parachute and come down with me.
Nothing else would have been safe we learned from
more experienced men after we reached the ground.
Having the weight of a man hanging on one side
of my canopy, however, changed the angle of my de-
scent and when I saw, as one can dimly see even on
a dark night, that I was almost to the ground I real-
ized that I was going to hit in a very awkward po-
sition. Although my feet touched the ground first,
my body was at such an angle that my feet and knees
could not take up any of the shock of the landing.
I sat down where sitting is best! One hits the ground
normally going about fifteen miles an hour. With two
men on my parachute we may have been falling faster.
The medical officer told me later that if I had hit
with that force on a normally hard piece of ground
at the base of my spine I would have undoubtedly
either been killed or very seriously crippled for the
rest of my life. But the Lord had given me a prom-
ise, and He had prepared a nice soft furrow of damp
rice paddy for my landing. I just went squ-u-ish,
right into it. The medics who were on the field, hav-
ing jumped in the first plane, had been able to see
against the night sky how we had tangled and when
they saw our landing they came rushing toward us.
I was picking myself up from the ground when two
of them came hurrying up to me with a stretcher.
They insisted that I get on. I told them I was quite
Tlte Shiela of Faith 75
all right and needed no help. One of them insisted
that having fallen as I did I should let them carry me
to the aid station so that the doctor could check me
over to make certain that I was perfectly fit. I re-
fused their offer, for I could tell that I was none the
worse for· my hard fall. I still had not dashed my
foot, nor any other part of my anatomy, against a
stone. The darkness was the same as the day. The
Lord had kept His promise.
The corporal who had ridden down with me landed
feet first in a perfectly normal ·way. He picked him-
self up and came rmming over to me. vVhen he was
close enough to recognize me, he blurted out, "vVell,
if I'd known whom I was riding down with I wouldn't
have been half so scared!" As we trudged off the
drop zone, walking close together, for each had to
carry his own parachute and we had been unable to
disentangle them in the darkness, I thought about
what he had said. I had laughed when he u ttered that
statement in his surprise, but the Lord taught me a
lesson from it. vVe who belong to the Lord have a
very great responsibility toward those who are r ound
about us, whether they are believers or unbelievers.
It is ours to claim God's promises. Those about
us should benefit continually from that which the
Lord does for us. It is our faith which lays h old of
the blessings which God willingly showers upon us,
but the blessings when they come are not limited to
us alone. How sad that so often we fail to r eceive
what the Lord is eager to give. Yes, and we fail
to bring blessing to others as well.
In Moses' day the Lord said, "If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves and
pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
,
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land." It is not the un-
godly and the sinners who bear the responsibility for
the revival blessings which we so much need in our
land today. It is to His own people that God calls.
If they will but believe His Word and be obedient
unto His call, the whole populace wi~l feel the might
of the moving of His Spirit.
Let us particularly note that the scripture says,
"Above all taking the shield of faith ..." This would
seem to indicate that more important than any other
consideration in the walk and warfare of the Chris-
tian is the matter of believing God, taking Him
strictly at His Word. This is entirely consistent with
the scriptural statement, "The just shall live by faith,"
which is the basic principle underlying much of the
doctrine of the New T estament as well as the Old.
In the book of Hebrews, which many have considered
to be a commentary on this statement, the high point
of practical life teaching is reached in the r rth chap-
ter where the lives of the great men and women of the
old dispensation were analyzed by the Holy Spirit
and it is clearly manifest that each one reached his
place of success and honor because he was willing
to recognize the absolute primacy of the Word of
God and to walk in humble faith in that Word. "Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of
God" (Romans ro : I 7). It is nonsense to talk about
faith in God if one ignores His Word.
Alas, how few Christians there seem to be who
are willing honestly and conscientiously to face their
personal responsibilities with regard to the clear
promises of the Book of Books. "Of course, we
believe the Bible," one hears on every side, but it is
The Sliield of Faith 77
easy to say "of course" and to go right on living with-
out those things which the Bible promises the true
believer, all the time failing to realize that it is lack
of faith which keeps one from those priceless values.
Many Christians have become so familiar with the
exhortations and promises of God's Word with re-
spect to certain of their "besetting sins" that, having
failed to really believe that what God says is true,
they have long since given up any idea of really
knowing victory in certain departments of their lives.
Let us take for example the simple matter of worry.
The believer is expressly forbidden in the scriptures
to worry. The commandment of God is : "In noth-
ing be anxious" ( Philippians 4 :6). Yet few Chris-
tians honestly recognize their worrying for what it is,
sin. Most believers have perhaps languidly wished
that they might be able to so completely trust the Lord
that they would stop worrying. They have never,
however, seriously and honestly faced the question of
whether they were willing to walk in the path of
faith and trust God for the fulfillment of His prom-
ises concerning a life without worry. vVith a shrug
of the shoulder they say, " I know I shouldn't worry,
but I just can't seem to help it." In the matter of
worry this is making provision for the flesh. How
reluctant they would be to show such a tolerant atti-
tude toward some other sins!
God's promises are specific with regard to the mat-
ter of worry. " In nothing be anxious, but in every-
thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God, and the
peace of God which passeth all understanding shall
keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus" ( Philip-
pians 4 :6, 7). If we have taken the shield of faith
we will face daily, and oftener than that if need be,
our privilege and r~sponsibility to live a life without
worry.
I have given but one example of what it means to
take the shield of faith. Many, many more could
be added. It is not just in trying circumstances on a
battlefield or in a foreign land that the Lord wants
to prove Himself and His promises to His own. Each
believer must know daily, hourly, yes, moment by mo-
ment, the sustaining power of these promises as well
as the sustaining presence of the Person who gave
them if he is to know victory in the constant warfare
with the powers of darkness. "Above all"-yes,
"Above all, taking the shield of faith."
CHAPTER SIX
Praying Always
"Praying always with all prayer and sup-
plication in the Spirit, and watching there-
1mto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints" ( Ephesians 6 : I 8) .
We were on the central front, having been in com-
bat in a number of widely scattered areas on the long
fighting line which stretched across the Korean penin-
sula. In the particular positions which we occupied
at the time when the incident which I shall describe
occurred, we had remained more or less stationary
for some time. Cliff and I happened to be taking
our turn to be with the 674th Field Artillery Battalion
which was the artillery unit of the 187th Airborne
Regimental Combat Team. It was customary for the
Catholic Chaplain and the other Protestant Chaplain,
when there was one, to alternate with me in spending
a few days or weeks at a time in each of the three
infantry battalions and the one field artillery battalion
which composed the combat team. The Regimental
Chaplain usually stayed at Regimental Headquarters.
I had been Regimental Chaplain for a few weeks
following our jump at Munsan, for on the second
or third day after that jump, Chaplain Dunne, the
Catholic priest who as Regimental Chaplain had wel-
comed me to the organization, had been very seriously
wounded when an ambulance on which he was riding
hit a land mine. He had been evacuated to Japan and
then to the States. His replacement was a Catholi~
priest, Chaplain Tom Koch, a genial and friendly
individual who always extended me helpful co-oper-
ation and who became a real friend in spite of the
wide divergence in our faith. Chaplain Koch, how-
ever, did not come to us for several weeks, and during
the interval I was senior and therefore Regimental
Chaplain. When Tom Koch arrived I was glad for
an opportunity to go and spend some time with the
artillerymen. I served with the field artillery in
World War II in Europe and have always had a spe-
cial interest in the men of that branch. When a chap-
lain is eating and sleeping right with a group of men,
he is more apt to gain their confidence and to be able
to help them than if he sees them only on occasional
or even frequent visits to their unit. I always felt
especially at home with the 674-th Battalion, perhaps
because of the cordial welcome which was always
extended by the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Tom
Lambert, himself a Roman Catholic.
The Lord had been blessing us among the artillery-
men. Cliff had proved a faithful and indefatigable
personal worker and had several times brought to me
some young fellow with whom he .had been dealing.
We had long talks with each of these men. We found
that many of them, although reared in the church,
were utterly ignorant of the simple way of salvation.
In the front lines of battle they were ready to face
the question of eternity very seriously. Our hearts
were filled with joy as a number of them opened their
hearts and received the Lord. Some who had not
made decisions for Christ were under deep conviction.
One evening, just about dusk, word was received
that all officers were to come to the battalion CP
(Command Post) for a briefing. Upon arrival
Prayilig Always 81
there we were told that we had received orders to
move out under cover of darkness for a special mis-
sion against the enemy. Our positions were to be
turned over to the ROKs (Republic of Korea Army).
The entire regimental combat team was to make a
surprise attack against the enemy in a sector several
miles removed from our present position. We were
told that in a certain valley across one of the large
tributaries of the Han River there was believed to be
a full division of Communist troops. Although we
were only a regiment we were counting on the su-
periority of our weapons and firepower, our extreme
mobility plus the element of surprise, to make it pos-
sible for our regiment to overwhelm an entire di-
vision. The area and plan of attack were carefully
pointed out on the map, and we learned that it would
be necessary for us to ford the large river which we
would have to cross, for all bridges had been com-
pletely destroyed.
Vve had not left the briefing tent when it began to
rain; it rained heavily throughout the entire night.
Since we were to pull out of our bivouac area at three
o'clock in the morning, before we went to bed for
what sleep we could get during the hours remaining,
we packed our jeep and trailer with all of our equip-
ment except our beds and the tent which was our
shelter. It was not an agreeable experience to get
that tent down, rolled up and packed away in our
trailer when we were aroused in the darkness at about
2 :30 A. M. The rain continued heavily. A thought-
ful cook in one of the batteries had prepared a large
vat of coffee. How good it tasted! After a welcome
cup of hot coffee we got into the jeep and took our
place in the convoy as it started down the road exactly
82 Aght the Good Fight
on schedule at three o'clock in the morning.
As we wound along on that narrow, slippery trail
which could hardly be called a road, I said to my as-
sistant who was driving the jeep, "Cliff, how does
this mission sound to you?"
"I don't like it, Chaplain," was his reply. "It
sounds very dangerous to me."
"I don't like it either, Cliff," I said, "and I believe
we ought to stop and pray about it."
Very conveniently our convoy stopped just at that
time while certain elements of one of the infantry
regiments emptied into the road ahead of us. So right
there in our jeep we prayed. The Lord had given us
a great burden for the souls of many of the men in
our regiment. We knew that a number of them
were under conviction, and we longed to be able to
deal further with them personally and to preach the
Gospel to them again so that they might find Him who
is life. We did not want to see them killed in combat
before they had accepted Christ. If the war was go-
ing to cost any of their lives, we did not want it to
be until we had been able to lead them to the Lord.
We earnestly asked God to protect our regiment, to
keep us from getting into a situation which would
bring high casualties, much suffering, and even death.
It was most interesting and spiritually illuminating
to me to receive just exactly a week later several let-
ters which were written on that day and the day after
by friends in the States. Each one told me that the
Lord had burdened him to pray especially for me at
that time. One dear friend with whom I had spent
many hours in rich prayer fellowship during the
months before my recall to active duty wrote me these
words: "I have been especially burdened today to pray
Pfa:,rilig Always 83
for your safety and for the safety of your entire regi-
ment." During all my time overseas no one else
wrote of praying for my whole regiment's protection.
Another good friend told me, after I had reached
home, that she had been kept awake all night at this
time praying for me and whenever she would begin
to pray for others the Lord would bring her back to
me, so that she prayed almost all night just for me,
my safety and welfare.
Did it matter? Let me finish my story and the
reader can judge for himself.
The early dim light of dawn was streaking across
the sky from behind the Korean hills when the first
elements of our convoy arrived at the ford through
which we were to cross the river and enter enemy ter-
ritory for a surprise attack. An advance detail had
marked out the trail from the road to the ford and
had also placed some markers in the river to show
the narrow stretch where the water was shallow
enough and the bottom firm enough for our heavily
loaded trucks to pass through.
We were far enough back in the convoy to miss
seeing the entrance of the first trucks into the water.
By the time we reached the high place on the road
which commanded a view of the ford and from which
the trucks left the road and wallowed through the
mud down the wide bank of the river to the edge of
the water, it was evident that something had gone
wrong. The river ford seemed full of trucks, but
most of them stalled. Back and forth in the water
were moving two large wrecker trucks trying to dis-
lodge those larger trucks which, having stopped in
the water, were blocking the way of the convoy.
The heavy rain of the night was responsible for all
84 Fight tlze Good Fight
the difficulty. The investigation of our reconnaissance
section the day before had established the fact that
this ford was sufficiently shallow that our regimental
convoy could get through without any difficulty. But
because of the continual heavy rain throughout the
night, the ,.,,ater was nearly a foot deeper than it had
been the previous day. It was this extra water which
was drowning out the motors of most of the trucks.
Orders were being shouted to drivers by officers
whose responsibility it was to get the vehicles through
the ford. It was absolutely imperative that the whole
convoy get across to the other side. Our important
mission against the enemy depended upon it. When a
truck seemed hopelessly stalled a way around it was
attempted. Smaller trucks were hooked to larger
ones by heavy chains at the edge of the water. The
motors of the larger trucks were higher out of the
water and thus less apt to be stopped.
As we arrived at the water's edge, our jeep was
fastened behind a truckload of infantrymen who
shouted out with laughter that they would be sure
to get through with the chaplain in tow. To our
amazement, as we were pulled out into the deep
water, our engine hardly even sputtered but kept run-
ning smoothly. The water began flowing over the
sides of the jeep and it was necessary for me to stand
up on the seat and then on the side of the jeep itself
to keep from having my feet soaked in the cold muddy
water. In order to keep the motor running, poor
Cliff found it necessary to get thoroughly wet.
When we were only about fifty yards from the far
shore of 'the river, the truck which was pulling us got
stalled behind another big truck, the motor of which
would not turn over. These larger vehicles had to
Prayi11g Always 85
stay within the narrow boundaries marked off for the
ford crossing. It was feared that their great weight
would cause them to sink into the river bed if they
drove off to the rocky bottom of the ford itself. Ap-
parently Koreans had used this particular crossing
for many generations and had perhaps carried in rock
to give it a firm bottom.
Cliff suggested that, since our motor was still run-
ning briskly, we should free ourselves from the truck
and attempt to get around the line. It seemed to me
that we had little to lose from making the try so I
called to the infantrymen in the truck ahead to unhook
the chain that held us to it. There were a few anxious
moments as we started around the other vehicles in
the swirling waters, but the little jeep struggled vali-
antly and in a very short time we were pulling up on
the slippery bank of the far side of the river, our
motor never having even sputtered.
Actually only a few trucks had come through
ahead of us. Some, heavily loaded with fighting men,
had gone right through the waters and had pushed
on down the road into enemy territory, but most of
the trucks still floundered or stood still in the rushing
river.
"We will only help congest the river bank if we
stay here," I said to Cliff. "Let's go on down the
road. I've studied this area on the map and I feel
sure that I know where we are going. We should
·soon come upon some of our men ahead of us. We
will at least discover a command post and we can
stop there."
Leaving the ford behind, we started on down the
muddy road. There was evidence in the ruts of the
road that several of our vehicles had preceded us along
86 F1'ght the Good Fight
the way, but not one could we see. When we had
covered nearly two miles and had still seen none of
our own troops ahead of us nor had any come up
from behind, I began to grow just a bit uneasy. We
were in enemy territory. A lone chaplain and his
assistant would be easy ptey for an enemy patrol or
even for a sniper.
"I believe we'd better stop here," I said. "We will
wait until some of our men come along. In the mean-
time we can have some breakfast."
The rain and the ford had left us wet and cold.
We had had no food, only a cup of coffee in the dark-
ness of the early morning. I did not have to argue
with Cliff to get his consent to stop for something to
eat.
Just as we were looking for a convenient place
to stop by the road and open our cans of C-rations,
I noticed a large railway bridge which we were ap-
proaching. Two spans of the bridge had been knocked
out by bombs or artillery fire. One span was still
standing intact. Under this span could be seen a
group of Korean men gathered around a blazing fire.
They were dressed in the familiar white garb of the
Korean civilian. We quite naturally took them for
friendly South Korean natives. It was evident that
they seemed undisturbed by the presence of American
soldiers in the vicinity. They seemed to be fully oc-
cupied with trying to keep warm.
"Let's stop here and go over and ask those Koreans
for the use of their fire," I said to Cliff. "We can dry
out, get warmed up a bit and have something to eat."
"That sounds good to me," was Cliff's ready re-
sponse.
The Koreans did not seem particularly delighted
Prayi11g Always 87
to share their fire with us. We could not talk with
them, but we made signs which indicated that we
would like to warm some cans of food on their fire.
They moved together rather reluctantly, it seemed,
to allow us some space at the edge of their fire.
I cannot remember the menu for that morning's
breakfast. Perhaps it was spaghetti and meat balls
with crackers and instant coffee. It may have been
beef with vegetable stew. Whatever it was, it tasted
very good to us. We always found the army's C-
rations provided a satisfying if not altogether de-
lightful meal. Whenever we ate in the presence
of Koreans, as we did on this morning, they would
look longingly at our appetizing food and would
always come in for a share of it. It is quite impos-
sible for the average American, to say nothing of one
who is a Christian, to eat in the presence of hungry
people without at least sharing some of what he has.
As we were finishing our meal we noticed that a
thick cloud was settling down upon the valley in which
we were waiting. 'vVe were completely surrounded by
high hills and already the tops of these hills were hid-
den in the clouds that were coming lower and lower.
Our breakfast was over and we were throwing the
C-ration cans away when I noticed a jeep racing back
along the road from the forward area. The officer
in the jeep hailed me. I ran to the road to talk with
him. "Orders have just come from the general over
the radio for us to get out of here, Chaplain, and we
are to get out fast. Turn your jeep around and get
back across the ford as quickly as possible." With
those words he was gone. I had no time for ques-
tions.
It did not take us long to be complying with this
.....

order, but as we started back along the road the cloud
settled down upon us and we drove through thick fog,
which greatly retarded our progress. After what
seemed like a very long time, we reached the ford
and made it back through the deep water with no more
difficulty than we had encountered getting across more
than an hour before. We soon joined the r.1ain body
of our convoy which was stopped about a mile below
the ford, waiting for all of the men and equipment
that had crossed the river to return.
As we sat in the jeep along the road one of the of-
ficers from the S-2 (Intelligence) section came walk-
ing by us. I hailed him.
"Say, Captain, why the sudden exit? I thought we
were going to make an attack on the enemy."
"Well, Chaplain, we were. As you know, it was
to have been a surprise attack. But we discovered
just in the nick of time that instead of our surprising
the Communists they were all set to give us a big sur-
prise. Instead of there being one division in that
valley there actually were three. They must have dis-
covered our intentions and they were going to let us
get across the river, for they would then have had us
surrounded. With their artillery they could have
zeroed in on that ford and cut off our retreat and
they then could have annihilated us. However, just
as our advance elements discovered what the situation
was, that cloud settled down on the valley and covered
us up completely. The enemy didn't know that we
were retreating and even if they had known, there
was nothing they could do, for they couldn't see us
to shoot at us. That cloud coming down on us was
the luckiest thing that ever happened to me in my
life!"
-
Praying Always 89
"That wasn't luck, Captain," I answered him.
"That happened because we have a God who answers
prayer. We prayed definitely about this mission this
morning."
"Chaplain, maybe you've got something there," he
said.
"I know I have. There's no doubt in my mind. It
was the Lord's doing."
I proceeded to tell him briefly of our experience
after we had crossed the ford, describing our stop to
eat with the Koreans under the bridge.
"Chaplain," the Captain broke in, " those Koreans
you ate with were undoubtedly North Korean Com-
munist soldiers who were planted there disguised as
South Korean civilians in order to throw us off the
track. They were just waiting for a signal to take
care of you. If it is any comfort to you, you had
breakfast with the enemy this morning!"
It is all right to hear such things after one is back
in a place of safety with his own troops. I couldn't
help wondering how I would have felt as I stood
around that fire eating my breakfast that morning
had I known that the Koreans on all sides of me were
enemy soldiers. But we were under the sheltering
wings of our heavenly Father's protection. We had
prayed, and no matter how close we came to the
enemy he could not hurt us. That promise He had
given me was still good.
Not one man in our entire regiment was even
injured on that whole operation. How faithful is our
God! But I often wondered in succeeding days what
might have happened if those He had burdened to
pray had failed to pick up the spiritual weapon of
prayer and by it hold back the enemy for us. I am
sure terrible things have happened because believers
failed to pray.
Prayer is not only a defensive weapon to protect
us from the enemy. It is also a weapon of offensive
action against the enemy. As such it might be called
the weapon of communication. No army can proceed
effectively without good communications.
Lt. Charles R. Ford was assigned to our outfit
when we were just north of the 38th parallel. He
was a very unusual young man, for he was both a
first-class, efficient, regular army officer and also a
born-again Christian with a real testimony for Christ.
One finds that combination very rarely in the army.
I did not meet "Dick" Ford, as he was called, immedi-
ately upon his assignment to our regiment but in suc-
ceeding weeks we became close friends. It was during
one of our many conversations that he told me of an
incident which took place in his first days with our
regiment. Dick had been a non-commissioned officer
during the Second V{orld War and had spent his time
training troops for combat but had never gone over-
seas himself. After a competitive tour of duty he
received his regular army commission, and again
when the Korean War broke out, he was given an as-
signment as a training officer in the States. He told
me that he often wondered if he would never see com-
bat at all but would spend all of his time training other
men for it. Then suddenly, without warning, he re-
ceived overseas orders, was flown to Korea and be-
fore he could hardly believe that he was on the other
side of the world, he had been given his assignment to
the 187th Regimental Combat Team and found him-
self north of the 38th parallel.
Upon his arrival at the regimental headquarters
Praying Always 91
he was assigned to "G" Company. Captain C. C. Rob-
ertson, Jr., who was the commanding officer of the
company, was also quite new to the regiment. I had
not yet met him, for he had been with us only a short
time. My first contact with him came some days later
in the regimental collecting station where I was min-
istering to wounded men, and he was brought in on
a litter after having been shot in the leg while leading
his company in an attack against the enemy. Later
he was to become one of my best friends in the regi-
ment, for being a fine Christian himself, he did every-
thing in his power to help me in my work with his
men and could always be counted on for encourage-
ment and whatever assistance it was in his power to
give. Very few army officers are so helpful to their
chaplains.
When Lt. Ford reported to his company com-
mander, he was given a platoon and almost immedi-
ately was ordered to lead the platoon on an attack.
As he and his men proceeded carefully up a rocky
creek bottom, they suddenly ran into a blistering at-
tack from enemy machine guns. Falling flat on the
ground, Dick said that he lay there trembling with
the realization that all men remember who have found
themselves for the first time in the thick of battle--
that those bullets piercing the air and striking the
rocks and trees around him were aimed at him! All
that he had learned as a soldier and all that he had
taught others seemed completely to leave him. As he
looked around him, he told me, he could see the men
of his platoon hugging the ground, looking to him
for orders, and he couldn't for the life of him think
what he should order them to do. He seemed incapa-
ble of remembering any of his training.
92 Fight tlt-e Good Fight
Then suddenly he saw a soldier with a radio on
his back hugging the ground only a few feet away
from him. Quickly he called to the boy to slide over
to where he was. He grabbed the radio and in just
a few seconds was in touch with Captain Robertson
at the company command post a little to the rear.
Dick described his predicament and received a couple
of crisp orders from the company commander.
"The minute I heard the orders," he told me, as he
described this experience to me, "I knew that I should
have thought of them myself. They were exactly
what I had been trained to do and what I had taught
others to do. But I believe if it had not been for that
radio and being able to get in touch with Captain
Robertson, I'd have been lying there frightened
and unsure until someone had come to my rescue."
If well-trained army personnel need to keep their
communications open at all costs, how much more
does the Christian warrior need to be in constant
touch with his great Company Commander, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Prayer is his channel of communica-
tion. No man is wise enough to know how to meet
each subtle attack of Satan. It matters not how well
schooled he is in the tactics of the enemy, there will be
times when he will face utter failure and def eat unless
he is in the closest contact with the Lord through
prayer.
Are you giving the enemy a great advantage over
you by allowing yourself to neglect the use of this
all-important weapon? How few there are who really
know how to wage war on their knees! The prayer
life of most Christians is so perfunctory. They bow
their heads before meals and offer a few words of
thanks and some simple, half-hearted petitions. Per-
Praying Always 93
haps for a few moments on rising or before retiring
they kneel beside their beds to thank God for His
many blessings and to enlist His continued favor in
a general way, but when it comes to engaging the
enemy of souls in mortal combat on their knees, they
know nothing of what this means.
Will you let the Holy Spirit search your own heart
in regard to this matter? Are you willing to be a
soldier if it means battling on your knees? "Praying
always with all prayer and supplication." This is not
an easy weapon to bear in the fray. May God help us
to pray.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Know Your Enemy

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your ad-
versary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour" (I
Peter 5 :8).
One entire section of an army, corps, division,
regiment or even of a battalion or smaller fighting
unit is called the G-2 or S-2. This is the intelligence
and reconnaissance section which has the responsibil-
ity of learning all that can be known about the
enemy. Every item of information concerning enemy
troops is important-where they are, how many there
are, what their morale is, how they are getting sup-
plied, when they are expecting to attack or retreat
and an almost endless list of other matters. No anny
could possibly function without intelligence. It
many times means the difference between defeat and
victory. The tide of many strategic battles in world
history has been changed because one side was able
to discover what the plans and resources of its enemy
were.
Christian warriors have been sadly negligent, how-
ever, in the matter of intelligence with regard to their
enemy. We sing lustily, "Onward, Christian soldiers,
marching as to war," but fail to observe some of the
most basic rules of warfare. Of these none is more
important than the maxim: know your enemy.
Sadly enough our adversary, Satan, has been most
successful in dulling the consciousness of multitudes
....
96 Fight the Good Fig/st

with regard to the necessity of carrying on any war-
fare with him at all. Though many Christians would
admit the reality of a personal devil in whose person
centers all opposition to God and His Son as well as
to all that is good and righteous, they have never felt
it incumbent upon them to study his tactics that they
might engage him in spiritual combat. They know
nothing of what it means to resist the devil so that
he will flee from them. As long, of course, as the
adversary can keep a believer from actively resisting
him he has won a great victory, and the believer ex-
periences continual def eat, even though he may be
little aware of its cause.
Our own great nation has discovered that there
were enemies working within our borders during the
last few years that were an important part of a world-
wide conspiracy to destroy our very way of life and
all that we hold most dear. The shocking crimes of
these enemies have startled our nation into action.
A few have been apprehended and convicted of
treason. No one has even uttered the wild hope
that all of them have been discovered. It is known
that these enemies still have today many ardent sym-
pathizers and some who have perhaps actively col-
laborated with them in their plots against the United
States, yet those who would ferret them out and
bring them to justice are often themselves subject
to great abuse because of their determination to dis-
cover and destroy all mortal enemies of American
freedom. To act foolishly as though these enemies
did not need to be discovered and did not pose a real
threat is to give them a great victory. Americans
who willfully ignore the seriousness of the subversive
activities of our Communist enemies in this country
Know Your Enemy 97
are themselves endangering the lives and liberty of
their fellow free men and are giving great comfort
to the forces of the Communist enemy.
But our concern at this time is with something
even more basic than the struggle with Communism
as a political principle, for that is only one aspect of
the deeper struggle, the spiritual warfare between
Satan and the Saviour, between the forces of dark-
ness and the saints of the Light. If we are to be ef-
fective Christian soldiers, we must learn much about
the archenemy of our souls and his tactics.
One of the first lessons of warfare is that of camou-
flage. The Communist enemy in Korea made most
effective use of this method of securing advantage
over our troops. I shall never forget talking to a
slightly wounded GI one day just outside a battalion
aid station where he had come to receive treatment for
some superficial wounds received in the fighting at
the front.
"Chaplain," he said to me, "the worst thing about
this messy fighting over here is that one never can
see the enemy. I've been right on the front line for
four days getting fired at and I've never yet been
able to see a single enemy soldier. If I could see
them I could hit them, but it's terrible when you
can't see them."
Many times during those difficult days I had offi-
cers and men tell me substantially the same thing.
The rough brush-covered terrain of Korea was easy
to hide in and the Chinese particularly made very ef-
fective use of camouflage. It was often somewhat
demoralizing for the United Nations troops.
The Christian needs to be aware that his adversary
will do all in his power to keep himself and his ef-
98 Fight tlte Good Fight
forts covered up completely. Often he hides be"'
hind a mantle of respectable good works. If he can
sidetrack a Christian from that which is God's perfect
will for his life by suggesting to him that he choose
some path which seems perfectly good and upright, a
signal victory will have been won; and the results in
the believer's life will be tragic. How often Satan
conceals his real intentions by posing as an angel of
light.
If, however, the devil cannot succeed in hiding
himself completely, he may try another tactic, that
of confusion. This was illustrated for me vividly any
number of times in Korea.
We were in positions to the north and a little
west of Uijongbu on the west central front in the
spring of 1951, a few days after our drop at Munsan.
All of a sudden I heard a loud voice coming from the
direction of the front lines. I could tell that it was
greatly amplified and was reaching us over a loud
speaker. I felt sure that our outfit did not have any
equipment like that in use, but it was easy to deter-
mine that the voice was speaking English so I began
an investigation to determine what was happening.
It did not take long to find out. The Chinese had set
up several loud speakers on the top of the ridge which
represented their front line, and they were broadcast-
ing an appeal to the soldiers in the foxholes facing
them. They were telling us that we were fighting
a needless war. The Koreans, they said, hadn't asked
us to come over and tear up their country. We were
destroying their homes and farms, making orphans
of their children and generally ruining their land.
All this was because a few Wall Street capitalists had
ordered us to fight a bitter war far from home to
Know Yo"r Enemy 99
serve their interests. Our mothers, wives, and sweet-
hearts were lonely for us and longing to have us at
home. It was a senseless war anyway, for the Red
army was invincible, and it was foolish for us to
think that we could defeat it. Why did we not just
lay down our weapons and tell our superior officers
that we weren't going to fight a bloody war any longer
for the sake of a few capitalists?
On and on for hours the enemy speaker droned. I
must add also, to the credit of the American soldiers,
that this propaganda accomplished nothing for the
enemy. The only reaction among the soldiers in the
foxholes was one of amusement that the Communists
would think them so stupid as to be susceptible to such
a ridiculous propaganda. There was no laying down
of arms. On the contrary there was a determined
effort to locate and destroy the loud speakers. This
was done. Every American soldier knew that that
bitter struggle in a bleak, far-away land was very
vitally connected with the liberties of those that he
loved back in the familiar scenes of his homeland. He
knew that he was not fighting for Wall Street finan-
ciers, nor yet alone for the Koreans, although his
compassion reached out to them in many ways. He
was fighting for his own liberties, for the safety of
his own home and for his own way of life.
The American army was much more successful in
introducing confusion into the enemy ranks. Often
we would hear loud speakers blaring from overhead,
and the words in Chinese or Korean would be mixed
with the roar of large airplane motors. Over the front
lines of the enemy an American army transport plane
would be flying back and forth dropping leaflets
urging the enemy to surrender and promising him
kind treatment and plenty to eat if he did so. The
loud speakers would broadcast specific directions
from the plane to those who wished to surrender.
They were to follow a certain prescribed pattern in
order to escape being shot down by United Nations
soldiers. Many did follow these instructions, and
sometimes the large numbers who were surrendering
to our troops posed a real problem. The enemy had
failed to introduce confusion into our ranks, but we
had successfully introduced it into his own.
How skillfully the devil labours to introduce con-
fusion into the hearts and minds of Christian sol-
diers! When they are fired with enthusiasm for on-
slaughts upon his territory through prayer and the
preaching of the Word, he whispers in their ears
that it is foolish to think that their efforts will really
accomplish anything. He will point to the weaknesses
and failures of other Christians. He will magnify
the successes of the few giants of faith who have
successfully defeated him and make these successes
seem to be so unusual as to be outside the reach of
any but an extraordinary, select few.
Perhaps he will point to the little that seems to be
accomplished by the combined efforts of all Chris-
tians in holding back the tides of iniquity in the so-
ciety of which they are a part. He will say to the
believer, "You are just one little individual among
millions. What can you expect your puny efforts to
accomplish?" He will even make use of the prophe-
cies of the scripture and, pointing to them, remind
the believer that God has warned us that the world
situation will wax worse and worse until the coming
of Christ. With these tactics he of ten succeeds in
getting Christians discouraged, and he persuades
Know Your Enemy 101
them to refrain from all-out attack upon his strong-
holds.
A prominent evangelical minister in the west when
questioned recently by a friend of mine as to why he
did not take a strong stand against the apostasy which
had crept into his denomination and had seized control
of the ecclesiastical machinery answered, "Well, I
believe the Lord is coming so soon that it would be
useless for me to try to do anything about this bad
situation."
What confusion! What failure to recognize the
hidden tactics and the subtle blandishments of the
enemy! Such an attitude is as much a victory for
Satan as that of the member of my own church in
Texas who said to me once, "I don't believe there is
any use of my even trying to do anything for the
Lord. I haven't any talents or special abilities and
I'm sure my efforts would count for nothing!" May
God make us aware of all of the efforts of the enemy
to confuse us, discourage us, and thus render us im-
potent in conflict with him.
We have spoken already of the enemy's effort to
dull the believer's consciousness of Satanic power and
activity and thus take away any sense of urgency in
spiritual conflict. There are those, however, who,
while not being deceived as to the necessity of using
spiritual powers in overcoming the wiles of the foe,
nevertheless fall prey to another device of the devil.
This is the tactic of concealment. It is often referred
to in military terms as ambush.
The most horrible day of my war experiences in
Korea started off very well. Our military maneuvers
had been highly successful. We were pushing the
enemy back rapidly. In fact, we had him on the run.
Orders had been given that we were not to stop but
were to press our advantage to the full. If the enemy
could be kept off balance and not allowed to regroup,
we would be able to press forward several miles be-
fore stopping to establish a strong line of defense.
As I have said, orders were given that our convoy
was not to halt under any circumstances. We were
pitted against the Chinese in this particular sector,
and our artillery, mortars, and machine guns were
destroying them in such numbers that their dead
bodies were actually piled on one another in spots.
There were places on the road where the bodies were
lying so thick that it was necessary to drive our trucks
right over them. There wasn't even time to clear
them off the road! The reader can imagine what
it meant to a Christian minister to drive over those
dead men. He will understand that it was all I could
do to allow my driver to continue along that road
over those bodies. I kept thinking that each one of
them represented a precious eternal soul for whom
Christ died and that the reason we were over there
mowing them down with our machine guns and driv-
ing over them with our vehicles was that the Chris-
tian Church had failed to get to them with the wit-
ness of the gospel as Christ had commanded. Had
they been reached with the gospel they would never
have been God-hating, cruel Communists. They would
never have listened to the false propaganda of the
Marxists who stirred up hatred of the western na-
tions. But there they were, mute witnesses to the
lethargy and carelessness of the Christians of the
world.
After several hours the main body of our regiment
was ordered to stop and establish itself for the night,
K11ow Y 011,r Enemy 103
setting up a perimeter of defense around the bivouac
areas. One battalion was to go ahead, pressing our
advantage over the enemy, with orders to take a
certain hill three or four miles up the road and dig
in there for the ex:pected counterattack. In order to
proceed to its objective it was necessary for the bat-
talion to pass through a very narrow defile on the
road. Little precaution was taken to see if there were
enemy troops around that little canyon. None made
any appearance nor fired at our troops. In their haste
to reach their ultimate objective, the officers of the
battalion apparently presumed that the enemy had all
retreated ahead of them.
Reaching the hill which was the objective of that
particular operation, the men began to dig in for the
night, making themselves as secure as possible against
the attack which was almost sure to come under cover
of the darkness.
There had been a few casualties along the way, so
as soon as the battalion command post had been
established, the ambulances were started back along
the road with the wounded. A number of empty
trucks were sent along with them to bring back sup-
plies. As this convoy of trucks and ambulances
reached the narrow defile, enemy machine guns and
mortars opened up from both sides of the road. Rifle-
men appeared behind almost every rock and tree.
Their fire was murderous. They had closed their
trap. None of our trucks were able to get through-
in a few moments they had all been set on fire. Even
the wounded men in the ambulances were all killed.
As far as I know only one man survived that massa-
cre, and he only for long enough to stumble back
through the darkness to the regimental command
104 Fig /it the Good Fight
post. I talked to him briefly as he lay dying in the

aid station.
" Oh, Chaplain," he cried, " we didn't even have a
chance. They didn't even give us a chance to sur-
render I"
For two days the enemy held that narrow cut, and
it was impossible for us t o get supplies and equip-
ment through to our battalion ahead. They fought
doggedly to get back to us and we tried desperately
to get through to them. Our only communication
was by radio. When we finally did break through, the
effort had cost us many casualties. And it was all
because the enemy had concealed himself and his in-
tentions from us, and we had not taken proper pre-
cautions against him in our haste.
Satan, the great enemy of our souls, will seek
desperately to convince us that he is not around and
does not have to be reckoned with. When w e have
had success in our Christian lives, he will try to make
us believe that he has retreated far from us. A mem-
ber of one of my churches, explaining to me that she·
would not be at prayer meeting on a certain W ednes-
day evening, said to me one day, "I guess it won't
make much difference whether I ' m there or not.
Things seem to be running very smoothly in the
church, and I guess we haven' t anything special that
we need to pray about." I was amazed at the utter
lack of understanding of the constant danger threat-
ening the church of Christ. The devil knows that if
he can lull believers into complacency and make them
feel that they do not have to reckon with him and take
precautions against him, he will have them trapped
and can bring great spiritual catastrophe upon them.
That is why the scripture warns us, "Be sober, be
_1 _
Know Your E11em31 105
vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roar-
ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may de-
vour" ( I Peter S :8).
Still another tactic of the enemy which should be
considered and prepared for is that of counterattack.
There were days in our fighting over in Korea when
everything seemed to be going our way. The enemy
would be giving ground steadily. Then suddenly our
forward troops would run into blistering fire, and
thousands of screaming troops would rush madly at
our lines. Sometimes there would be some fore-
warning of such an attack, but it did come often
without warning. Everything that the enemy pos-
sessed would be hurled at us. Hundreds of enemy
soldiers would be sacrificed in order to keep great
pressure on our forces.
On those dark days our aid men and medical of-
ficers would work until they were exhausted. I have
watched the doctors work steadily around the clock
with no attempt to get any sleep, caring for the
wounded and dying. During every hour of daylight
one could hear the whirr of the helicopters as they
kept coming to the battlefield, taking the most criti-
cally wounded back to hospitals in rear areas for the
emergency operations which in many, many cases
saved their lives. Those were dark days--days of
counterattack. It was, incidentally, on such days
that the American soldier qisplayed his true magnifi-
cence. There were never any whining complaints,
never any who thought we should give up. Every
man had faith that though the situation looked dark
for the present, the strength and resources of his own
beloved and great nation were behind him and that
the tide would be turned and the enemy would be
defeated. Victory was sure to come!
In spiritual warfare there are times when in the
midst of apparent peace and victory the devil suddenly
hurls something very fierce at us. All his resources
seem to be taxed with the weight of that which he
brings against our spiritual lives. We had thought
he was on the run, and instead we find ourselves with-
out warning in the midst of trials, disappointments,
sorrows and heartbreaks of g_reat magnitude. Some-
times it does not take big things to defeat us. How
many times some insignificant, petty thing brings real
defeat into our lives. We must be prepared for the
attacks of Satan wherever they come-"Lest Satan
should get an advantage of us: for we are not ig-
norant of his devices" ( II Corinthians 2 : r r). We
must be prepared to resist him CJ ames 4 :7).
One more method of the enemy should be men-
tioned before we bring this subject to a close. It is
one of the favored ways of operation when things
are going badly for the enemy. It is the tactic of
compromise.
Early in the summer of r951 as we were pressing
forward very successfully against the enemy, far
north of the 38th parallel on the eastern sector of the
front, word reached us that we were not to proceed
any farther but were to dig in and hold the lines that
we had. We were given to understand that the people
back at home in the States were sick of the costly
war and were clamouring for peace. An effort was
going to be made to reach an armistice for our gov-
ernment, and our home folks wanted peace. Let it
always be remembered that it was not the fighting
man in the front lines who thought we should stop
the Korean War when we did. He did not see the
Know Your Enemy 107
Chinese Communist as an invincible foe, for he had
been beating the Chinese soundly for many days.
Every soldier to whom I talked who had had any
experience fighting the Communist Koreans and Chi-
nese felt that the only way to satisfactorily end the
war was to finish it up by freeing Korea completely
from Communism.
When the armistice talks started, our outfit, be-
cause of its special mobility, was soon drawn out of
the line, sent back to the rear areas and then very
soon on over to Japan to be ready to make a para-
chute drop very quickly if things got out of hand.
We were told that a peace camp was to be set up near
the village of Munsan, where we had a few months
before made a combat jump. Our high ranking offi-
cers and diplomats were going to try to come to some
terms with the Communists in order to end the war
through compromise.
Before many days of the armistice talks had
passed, the whole world discerned the fact that the
Conununists did not want peace but were stalling for
time and for advantage, still fighting the war but
hoping to win it in a less costly way through com-
promise.
The whole tragic story of the end of what was at
least the first phase of the Korean War has now been
told. vVi th every report the American losses through
casualties go higher even at this late date-yet all this
cost of human lives and human suffering was paid
without a real victory because the enemy found us
willing to compromise with him in order to secure
a condition of artificial peace rather than victory I
The devil has made tragic inroads on the Christian
Church today because he has found so many believers
108 Fight tire Good FigM
who seem to be willing to place peace above victory,
who are more concerned with preserving a state of
quiet and restfulness in their lives than they are with
being strictly obedient to the Lord's commands.
God's people have been called to a life of warfare--
their role is that of the soldier. The believer is not
chosen for a life of ease and comfort in this earth.
He is a pilgrim and a stranger here and is to wage
a constant warfare against the spiritual forces of
great darkness. But the God who called us to the
warfare and chose us to be His soldiers has promised
that we would always come out on the winning side
if we fought with Him and in His way.
I never questioned in my mind what the ultimate
outcome of the fighting in Korea would be. Even
when things looked darkest and a retreat had been
ordered, I felt confident that we would win, for was
not the United States of America, the greatest land
on earth, behind us to the end? What other knowl-
edge was needed to inspire confidence? None, indeed.
In the spiritual warfare we have assurance of vic-
tory. One is on the victory side if he is on the
Lord's side. No price is too great to pay to be sure
that one is walking in the center of His will. No ef-
fort for His glory will go unnoticed or unrewarded.
He "always causeth us to triumph in Christ."
May God be pleased to take the simple lessons
which He taught me in Korea and use them to show
you that He is always ready to bring His children
into rich experiences of His victory if they will trust
Him and obey His Word. He is willing to overcome
every obstacle and to provide all necessary strength
and wisdom. May we be unwilling to be without
His victory.
About The Author
Dr. " Bob" Rayburn, the son of a well-
known inte rdenominationa l evangelist, Dr.
J a mes Rayburn, got his first experience in
Ch ristian work while assisting his father as
pianist a nd young people's worker in his cam-
paigns. A talented pianist and organ ist, he
planned on a career as a professional musi-
cian, b ut while a student at Wheaton College
h e was called of the Lord into the ministry.
After graduation from Wheaton and the
Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Omaha,
he served a pastorate in Nebraska before go-
ing to Texas where he earned his doctorate
in theology at the Dallas Theological Semi-
nary.
On the completion of his first tour of duty
as an a rmy chaplain, serving in the European
Theatre during World War II, he returned to
the pastorate. He was called back to Wheaton,
Illinois, to pastor the College Church a nd it
was from there that he was recalled into the
army and had the experiences which h e h as
recorded in this book.
Dr. Rayburn is now th e president of Cov-
enant College and continu es his ministry to
young people there. He also conducts evan-
gelistic campaigns in many par ts of the coun-
try. He is still a chaplain, with the rank of
Major, in th e active reserves of the U. S.
Army.

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Fight the Good Fight

Lessons from the Korean War

Robert G. Rayburn, Th. O.

President, Covenant College

The Covenont College Press

I. THE Goon FIGHT OF FAITH 9

II. BE STRONG IN THE LORD 19

III. THE SOLDIER'S WEAPONS SS

IV. THE BELT OF TRUTH 61

v. THE SHIELD OFFAITH 69

VI. PRAYING ALWAYS - 79

VII. KNOW YouR ENEMY 95

The Good Fight of Faith

know that provision should a lways be made for rain!

discover. As our infantrymen had proceeded through

Be Strong in the Lord

the rich experiences which were my lot in Korea, and

Be Str01ig in the Lord 25

Quick as a flash, as those words from the ninety-

Let me ask the reader a question. Could you think

I could do in either situation."

comparatively little difficulty we secured the drop zone

The Belt of Truth

64 Fight the Good Fight

The Shield of Faith

The S/iielcl of Fai th 73

plane, a young soldier had jumped from the left side.

88 Fight the Good Fight

Know Your Enemy

96 Fight the Good Fig/st

post. I talked to him briefly as he lay dying in the

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