Treat yourself

Heads up. Thursday is this year's National Day of Prayer. You probably have your own venue but a group of us are gathering at Hillside Perks that day for a morning of coffee, breakfast, and prayer. Good combination. Your columnist has been "volunteered" to do the appellation to God on behalf of the media and the military. Fertile ground that for sowing the seeds of hope.

In our home Grannie Annie placed a plaque in a well-traveled hallway that is a daily reminder. "Prayer is less about changing the world than about changing ourselves"--David J. Wolpe. I don't know about you but changing me for the better---good!

The year was 1944 and the American-British Allied offensive toward the heart of Nazi Germany was stalled. The Allies had landed in France "D-Day Jun 6th and progress came in fits and bits. December had turned bitter cold, The Army Air Corps was pretty much grounded due to heavy clouds, fog, rain, and snow. Supply strapped Third Army's, Lt. Gen. Patton was chafing in his forward headquarters for a solution. Patton as we remember had all the traits of military leadership, fortified by genuine trust in God, intense love of country, and boundless faith in his American soldiers.

So it was on Dec 8th the General; called in his staff chief of Chaplains to appeal to a higher power for help. "This is General Patton: do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war".

Next day Patton's Chief Chaplain, Colonel, Msgr. James H. O'Neil presented the boss with a 3" x 5" filing card on which he had printed:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

The backside of the card was printed with a Merry Christmas wish for each officer and soldier in Patton's Army. The General's response, "Have 250,000 copies printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one."

The cards arrived in all units by the 12-14th of December. On the 16th the Germans initiated a breakout through the Ardennes with the intent to retake the vital port of Antwerp. Hitler's hope was to drive a wedge between the Brits and the Americans and go for a negotiated settlement to the war on his Eastern Front. The action came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne was part of that action. Remember the Ardennes was a miserable place to fight for both sides, totally different from Nebraska, with steep terrain, trees everywhere and few roads. The cold, the snow, muddy clogged roads, fog and poor visibility wreaked havoc on both sides. It was one of the worst battles in terms of casualties on both sides for the war in Europe.

Did the prayers of the humble soldiers work? On Dec. 20 the rains and the fogs ceased. For the better part of a week came bright clear skies and perfect flying weather. Our U.S. Army Air Corps planes came over by tens, hundreds, and thousands. They wreaked havoc on any part of the German juggernaut that moved and they dropped sorely needed supplies to our beleaguered troops. The battle turned in the Allies favor.

Coincidence?

Possibly but then there is the aspect of prayer "changing ourselves" and strengthening the resolve to do better for each of General Patton's beloved American fighting men. We won that battle and then never looked back on the march to Berlin and the end of the war against Nazi Germany.

Now for our National Day of Prayer we are asked to pray for each member of our American military. At present we have the smallest military since before WWII and I read recently that we have active duty military personnel in 53 countries around the world. We are also being asked to pray for: government (the rest of the behemoth that is not military), media, business, education, church and family.

Ah, the media! At the moment it is hard to get accurate reporting on our upcoming election. The left, and that includes a great majority of the print, television, and radio media wants ever more strengthening of our government that will tend to poke into every aspect of our lives. The right wants more hands off approach to government. About all we the news consumer get is opinion, this column included, and it is difficult to strike a balance between the two opposing sides. This old guy tends to watch on the network that professes to be "fair and balanced" and their reporting is quite different from what we receive from public radio.

Maybe each of us will benefit from quiet time in introspection pondering such things in personal prayer opening our mind to the will of God. Listen to that small quiet inner voice that says take heed. "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under." President Ronald Reagan.

That is how I saw it (with some help from Google).

Dick Trail