The staff at Armed Services Activities of The Mother Church includes three former Armed Forces Chaplains, who well understand the problems facing a reluctant draftee, an enlisted man, a combat soldier, or a career serviceman. Knowing what a great help Christian Science can be, they encouraged the student to see that in reality he was a divine idea and that, understanding this, he could not be sent into a strange world beyond the care of his Father-Mother God. Soon a reply came from the man. He had joined the Air Force and now indicated a complete change of view, writing, "It's all in God's hands now."
Assigned to their first base, constantly faced with the unfamiliar, some young men reach out for Christian Science in a new way. A son's first letter home surprised one mother: "I made it to church today," he wrote, "first chance ... to get to a Christian Science service. . . . It's great. The fellow beside me cried a little, and I almost did too. I never paid so much attention to a church service. . . . It's comforting to know that God is always near."
Sent overseas, servicemen often find Science a steadfast aid in carrying out duties unharmed. A soldier stationed in France was driving a five-ton truck from Germany late at night down a long steep grade toward a small town. He braked, but the pedal went to the floor; he tried downshifting, but the speedometer was on sixty. "Right away all that I had learned in Science came to mind," the soldier related. "I settled right down while my copilot was still [panicking]. I knew that I was God's child and nothing would happen to me and I kept my . . . truck under control through that town and back onto the highway."
