It was Day 3, and the intensity of the battle had hardly diminished. The North Vietnamese troops around us seemed overwhelming no matter how many we killed with each human wave attack. Five helicopters were shot down on the first day. We were running out of everything, so we rationed our food and our ammunition, making every shot count. The communists had all the ammo they needed.

On Day 4, there was a lull in the fighting, and our badly battered company of Marines withdrew to a nearby hill, bringing our dead and wounded with us. We had less than 150 men when we entered the valley, and less than half of us could continue fighting. The North Vietnamese regiment vastly outnumbered our thinning ranks.

On Day 5, the siege was lifted and we walked out.

Thinking back, I realize that in every battle I took part in, we were always outnumbered. Guerrilla warfare is when your enemy waits until it is to his advantage to let you “find him.” In the first major engagement, we were outnumbered nearly four to one. The night I lost my entire squad during an ambush, we were outnumbered nearly 10 to one.

My pastor and I are part of a group of men who meet at 6:00 AM every Wednesday to pray for our city and our nation. I turned off my TV on Election Day and purposely didn’t look at the election results until the next morning. When I walked into our prayer meeting and saw the looks on the faces of several men, I knew it wasn’t good.

I woke up that morning not afraid, not depressed, but with a burden I couldn’t initially put my finger on. That’s when I reflected back to my time in Vietnam — always being outnumbered!

But the more I thought about it, in reality, we are not outnumbered by the radical, progressive, Marxist, and Islamist forces arrayed against us. In fact, I believe actual conservatives and Christians outnumber our adversaries by a significant margin.

Notice I said “adversaries,” not “enemies.” I don’t hate anyone. I may hate what they are trying to do to my beloved country, but I don’t hate them.

When I left Vietnam critically wounded, I hated my enemy with every part of my being. As the years passed, I realized that hate was not helping me move on. Since Christ forgave me, I had no choice but to forgive others — even former communist soldiers who tried to kill me and nearly succeeded.

When I eventually returned to Vietnam, I was able to sit with my former enemies and share the love of God.

We need to remember that things are not always as they seem. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Here’s another story to encourage you. The King of Syria sent out an army to hunt down the prophet Elisha. They found him in Dothan and surrounded the city. When the servant saw the city surrounded, he ran inside and told Elisha, We’re toast! We’re dead men because the Syrians have us surrounded. Elisha then prayed a simple prayer: “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (II Kings 6:16).

For the children of God, nothing has changed. You’ve read this on the pages of The Patriot Post before, but it bears repeating today: “We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times” (George Washington, 1777).

We’re hardly facing a Valley Forge! In Vietnam, we won the battle but lost the war. As Christians, we may lose a few battles, but we continue fighting on our knees and at the ballot box.

Something to pray about.
Semper Fidelis