A marine, one of about 525 Christian Scientists serving in Vietnam, prayed on the eve of battle that tomorrow was God's day, filled with good only. "If I was sent over here at God's directing," he reasoned, "then I wasn't sent here to kill or to be killed, to destroy and hurt, but I was sent to bless."
Next morning as his company moved through a valley, this platoon leader heard some of his men excitedly calling his name, saying they had found a North Vietnamese soldier. The Christian Scientist, weapon ready, looked inside a bunker and saw this North Vietnamese, apparently unarmed, looking back at him. "I motioned for him to come out and he started to walk toward me. Some of my men moved in to help cover him. He saw this and I think he became frightened. He tried to reach a grenade on his belt but by this time I had my hands on him. Then I started to tie him up. He was talking very fast and I couldn't understand him, so I put my finger up to my mouth and told him to be quiet. Just as I did this, our eyes met. The fear in his eyes disappeared. I then saw understanding and love, and I knew in my heart that he realized I wasn't going to harm him. My prayer, my desire to do good, my protective work for myself and all my men, God working through me, had enabled me to save, not to kill!"
To the marines, this was heroic action; the Christian Scientist was awarded the Bronze Star. To him, it was "just the natural thing to do."
