This Week at War: Prayers for the Deployed

The Stream's weekly look at the sacrifices of U.S. troops and military families around the globe.

By Tom Sileo Published on October 19, 2018

Afghanistan

Late Wednesday night, I noticed a tweet from a college student in Texas who wrote that her brother is about to deploy to Afghanistan. After I replied to offer a prayer for his safety, she shared this.

https://twitter.com/macthekillerr/status/1052766751845490688

The college student’s father and brother are among thousands of American troops heading overseas to continue fighting America’s longest war. They include more than 1,500 U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Drum in New York, where a ceremony was held this week to honor the deploying heroes.

“Just like any other mission in Afghanistan, we don’t want to stay there forever,” U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mike Eiermann told WWNY-TV, which covered the ceremony. “Maybe there will be a continuing mission such as what goes on in Korea and such, but right now we are trying to enable to Afghan forces so they can stand up to the insurgencies going on in that country on their own.”

The TV station’s report notes that soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division will spend nine months in the war zone. Of the 2,000 warriors set to deploy, “a few hundred” will branch off to Kosovo.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, three Americans were wounded in a Thursday attack that killed a prominent Afghan police general in Kandahar. Stars and Stripes reports the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, was also targeted by the shooter. Thankfully, Gen. Miller escaped injury.

Please continue to pray for our troops – especially those injured on Thursday – and their families. As the college student’s tweets demonstrate, every deployed U.S. service member has loved ones and friends back home worrying about his or her safety.

Iraq and Syria

Thousands of American warriors are still taking the fight to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Operation Roundup, which is targeting the terrorist group’s remnants, “has continued to gain ground and remove terrorists from the battlefield through offensive operations coupled with precision Coalition strike support,” according to the Pentagon.

The latest Department of Defense numbers show 137 coalition strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria from October 7-13. This past Saturday, a bomb factory and eleven supply routes were destroyed near the Syrian border city of Abu Kamal, which has been heavily targeted by American fighter jets in the last month.

The last reported strike in Iraq was on October 9, when two ISIS tactical units were engaged near Taji, according to the military.

Iraq and Syria are obviously still very dangerous places for American Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen. As we pray for these service members and their fellow heroes in Afghanistan, here are some ideas on how to do so from Operation We Are Here, which consulted a U.S. Army chaplain.

“Pray that [the deployed service member] will be fulfilled in his (or her) job,” the chaplain suggested. “Without purpose, time in the combat zone is extremely long and difficult.”

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

Coming Home

Imagine spending seven months away from your loved ones. That’s what sailors on the USS Newport News just did, but thankfully, they returned to American soil this past weekend.

Navy Homecoming

A U.S. Navy sailor assigned to the attack submarine USS Newport News receives hugs from his children at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia after returning from a seven month deployment on October 13, 2018.

Welcome home, heroes!

 

Tom Sileo is a contributing senior editor of The Stream. He is co-author of three books about military heroes: 8 Seconds of CourageBrothers Forever and Fire in My Eyes. Follow Tom on Twitter @TSileo.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Scarcity Mindset
Robert Morris
More from The Stream
Connect with Us